Photo by Tri Nguyen
On a Friday morning during her freshman year, Annabel Schneiberg ’22 filed on to a deluxe tour bus instead of into English class. She and the rest of Lick-Wilmerding’s women’s basketball teammates rallied and joked to pass the time during the eight-hour ride to Crescent City, California, near the Oregon border. The team was on an eight-game winning streak and about to play Del Norte in the North Coast Section (NCS) Division Four semifinals.
Schneiberg was ready.
Walking into the overwhelmingly foreign gym, filled with Del Norte banners, posters and boisterous fans, Schneiberg realized she was no longer an individual; she and her team were Lick-Wilmerding.
The game was intense and frantic but came down to the last five minutes of hard work. LWHS was overtaken with unfamiliarity and the incessant cowbells that echoed in the crowd. Though they ultimately lost 47-42, Schneiberg learned an important lesson: no matter the crowd, the playing conditions or the opponent, “the court is always 90 feet and the basket is always 10 feet tall.”
Today, Schneiberg is a co-captain on the LWHS basketball team along with Ava Gray ’21 and Dominique Cabading ’22. She was named the Player of the Year in San Francisco and second-team All-State (Division 3) during her sophomore year.
Most often as the point guard, and occasionally as the off-guard, Schneiberg strives to push her teammates on and off the court. The junior creates a competitive atmosphere and looks to, as she says, “treat every practice like a game.”
“With Annabel being our point guard and leading the team, we all kind of feed off of her energy,” Cabading said. “Annabel will always be there just to tap you on the back just when you need it.”
Photo by Tri Nguyen
While in the process of choosing her high school, Schneiberg relied on advice from her fellow co-captains, Gray and Cabading. At LWHS, Schneiberg realized, “we could really be a special group in a small school, which was an opportunity that I wanted to take advantage of.”
So far, they have.
Although she is not currently competing against opponents due to the pandemic, Schneiberg has channeled the energy once used for games into pushing herself harder during training and practice. She works out six days a week with a combination of on-the-ball work, strength and agility.
Despite multiple Division I offers to play college basketball, Schneiberg is still looking to improve. Her shot, which she has always been told can make or break reaching the next level, is a constant focus. Schneiberg noted that “when everyone else saw quarantine as a time to take their foot off the gas, I knew it was a chance to get ahead.”
The pandemic has hit many athletic departments hard, including LWHS’. Daniel Tesfai, the women’s basketball head coach and Body Mind Education teacher, said that “it’s all about controlling the controllable.” For Tesfai, that has meant keeping the team connected and engaged through workouts at the park and trivia nights. As co-captain, Schneiberg has been at the center of it all.
Basketball has always been an important part of Schneiberg’s life. When she walked to the bus stop before elementary school, she always made sure to have a ball to take with her. She could always be seen gliding around the court in the “smooth” and “composed” playing style she still has today.
Her mom, Elizabeth Schneiberg, remembers one of the first times Annabel left a crowd oohing and aahing. “There was a moment where she hit a three-pointer, I think it was in third grade, and they didn’t even count them as 3-pointers but the people around in the crowd knew what it was,” Elizabeth Schneiberg said.
After all, the court is always 90 feet and the basket is always 10 feet tall.
