Naomi Hunt: Injury and Recovery
About Naomi Hunt
Naomi Hunt began her collegiate basketball career at Long Beach State University, etching her name in the record books after notching “144 career 3 threes” ranking her top 10 in history. She only competed 3 of her 4 years there after partially tearing her ACL sophomore year and receiving surgery. This left 2 years of eligibility left for her to compete, allowing her to make the transfer to UCI to complete her collegiate basketball career. She ended her time in college basketball as an NCAA Big West Conference Regular Season Champion.
When I First Met Naomi
The first thing that I noticed about Naomi Hunt when I met her was the confidence that she carried herself with. It was lunch during our first day of orientation. I had just stood up in front of my new peers and announced that the problem I wanted to solve by starting my business was removing the barriers for women in sports. I wanted a way to raise awareness and media coverage.
Naomi came up to me, tapping me on the shoulder. I stared up at her, standing at 6’1, and she told me she liked my idea. She said she was on the college basketball team and from that point on we began to form a friendship.
We spent the year in group projects together, collecting data on student athletes mental health and trying to figure out ways to provide student athletes with the support they needed, on and off the field. We called this project Mora Wellness, and it was pitched as an app that helped student athletes check in with their mental health, a place to go to find mental health resources, and a way to submit complaints about anything abusive that may be going on within the team. We ended the year putting Mora Wellness on hold, with a promise that someday we may have the bandwidth and the resources to really help.
The Interview
On May 20th, 2023, Naomi Hunt joined me at The Great Park of Orange County to talk about the historic win her team had just produced. 2 degrees, 2 certificates, and 6 years later, Naomi Hunt was done with college basketball. Her time as a college athlete had many ups and downs including a Big West Championship and 2 acl surgeries (the second of which she had undergone just 3 months prior in February 2023). For the first time in season history, the UCI Women’s Basketball team were The Big West Regular Season Champions. In a season that could have crippled them after three season ending injuries to the starting line up, they still finished the regular season on top.
As we hear the end of interview we start to talk about specific memories that Naomi will take with her forever. She spent 6 years learning who she was on the court and for the first time would be putting her energy towards what was next, and what her life looked like after basketball. “You’ve been through a lot, you have accomplished a lot, what are you most proud of?” I ask. “I’m really proud of being able to graduate twice, technically three times. In undergrad I didn’t think I was going to take a fifth year because I was over it, I didn’t think I could do it. But I was able to kind of push through”. If there is one thing Naomi can take with her from her time in basketball, it is the strength and resilience it takes to push through.
