KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A few years ago, Jacie Hoyt was drawn to a guard at Iowa Western Community College. She was feisty and competitive, and played bigger than her 5’7 size. The Kansas City head coach saw a bit of herself from her playing days in that JuCo recruit, who ultimately signed with the Roos and has gone on to rack up awards and log 40-point games in blue and gold.
But that guard brimming with intensity didn’t always take basketball seriously. In the beginning, basketball was last in line for Roos’ senior Naomie Alnatas.
“I won’t say I hated basketball,” she said. “But it was the last sport I tried.”
The French Guiana native, who goes by Mimie, can still tick off the sports that came before basketball: judo, karate, handball, volleyball, track. When she was 10, Alnatas was told to put on some shoes and go try out basketball. She put on a pair of decidedly not basketball shoes (Van’s), went to practice and, before she knew it, was being put into teams above her age group.
Since then, her basketball journey has taken her across three continents and currently has her standing as one of the Summit League’s best players, and leading a Roos program trying to complete some lingering, unfinished business. It all, however, started with cement.
“The courts [in French Guiana] are outside, the floor is just cement,” she said. “The sun may be going hard or I would literally go play basketball under the rain with no shoes. But that’s okay, you didn’t really have a choice, that’s where I came from. These were the best games.”
Alnatas said soccer takes top billing in French Guiana, a French overseas region on the northeastern coast of South America with a population of under 300,000. When she was 14, she moved to France to pursue a future in basketball and continue developing her game. She spent five years playing and going to school on the European mainland, an opportunity she said she loved, but had a feeling that the United States would be her next step. That ultimately led her to Iowa Western in 2017, where she contributed immediately to a 25-win team and earned an NCJAA All-American Honorable Mention nod as a freshman.
Alnatas said the transition to America wasn’t so much a struggle for her. She was still learning English and in a new country, but she’d already spent five years away from her family, had a strong support system at Iowa Western and found ways to adapt. The game itself, however, was played with an intensity that was hard to keep up with at first.
Adapting to that and mirroring that intensity, however, was what put her on her next coach’s radar.
Unleashing the lion
For a time, Hoyt was worried she was losing Alnatas.
The Roos had an early line on her, as her coach at Iowa Western – Patrick Harrison – joined Hoyt’s staff as an assistant in 2018. But Alnatas’ debut season had gotten power conference schools interested, potentially putting at risk the Roos’ chances of signing a player whose scoring talent would be vital for a team looking to mold an eventual replacement for star guard Ericka Mattingly.
Then, injury struck prior to Alnatas’ sophomore campaign at Iowa Western.
“We didn’t think we were going to get her, and then she tore her ACL and a lot of big-time schools dropped off,” Hoyt said. “We hung around knowing a little more about her work ethic and her character. We knew she was a special player.”
Alnatas landed in Kansas City ahead of the 2019-20 season, the Roos last in the WAC before departing for the Summit. She would play a supporting role (12.4 mpg, 4.0 ppg) on a team headlined by Mattingly, the eventual WAC Player of the Year, that won the school’s first regular season championship. That team, like all others in the ill-fated 2020 season, would not get its chance to compete for an NCAA Tournament as the pandemic shuttered the sport.
The team lost its two leading scorers – Mattingly and Cristina Soriano – to graduation, putting Alnatas in a position to play a bigger role as the team swept into the Summit. As she adjusted to that new responsibility, she and Hoyt realized they had more in common than they even knew.
“She wants to be a lion,” Hoyt said. “My mom and I always talk about that, and relate to animals and talk about being a lion with all things. [Alnatas] told me that without me ever telling her I strive for the same for myself.”
That realization led to a pivotal moment during the 2020-21 season between player and coach.
“Last year I really challenged her,” Hoyt said. “We had a really hard and direct conversation. I said to her, ‘your words aren’t matching up with what you’re doing with us right now, you say you want to be a lion, but you’re not showing me or showing anyone.’ I think she kind of woke up and said, ‘this is who I want to be and this is who I need to be.’”
That has born itself out on the court. Alnatas turned in a tremendous junior campaign (16.0 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.2 apg), the highlight of which saw her score 45 points in an overtime win at Oral Roberts. It landed her on the All-Summit First Team, and she has carried that momentum into the 2021-22 season.
She spearheaded the Roos’ program-record-tying 10-game winning streak this year, putting up another gaudy point total (38 points) in a win over UT Arlington, while rarely missing from three. That dynamism was also on display in a hard-fought loss to South Dakota State in the Summit League opener on Monday, where she went for 20 points and six assists. Early on, as the Jackrabbits threatened to pull away with an 11-2 start, Alnatas came out of a timeout with a change of pace, driving layup and deep three on back-to-back possessions to keep the Roos in the game.
In those moments, that shared lion mentality has shown through.
“Lions are never getting attacked, they’re always the attackers,” Alnatas said. “They’re fearless, relentless, they never back down. It’s just a mentality you have to live out, and it just helps to have that example right there as your head coach, that straight example right in front of you. [Hoyt] just shows me what it’s like to be a lion.”
Now, that Roo that plays like a lion has some unfinished business.
If it were all taken away tomorrow
The end of the 2019-20 season gave Alnatas perspective.
The top-seeded Roos had already kicked off the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas, blowing out Chicago State to earn a date with New Mexico State in the semifinals. That game, of course, would never happen, and the Roos’ inside track to their first NCAA Tournament was extinguished as the sports world shut down. Alnatas played 20 minutes in that quarterfinal win, ultimately part of a run cut short that left questions answered.
Not being able to play for that bid has stuck with her and fellow senior guard Mandy Willems, the only two players left from that team.
“Mandy and I being the only two that actually lived it, we try our best to make our teammates understand,” Alnatas said. “You just constantly remind yourself, what if tomorrow your season is over? Practice may be hard, but what if tomorrow you’re not able to practice anymore? Would you take advantage of the day you have today and give it 100 percent?”
That mentality has helped translate into that booming non-conference run. The Roos racked up wins over teams from the Mountain West, Missouri Valley and WCC, while also posting a quartet of victories away from the Swinney Center. In the process they shot the three at one of the best rates in the country, and vastly improved their rebounding numbers from the season before.
Alnatas has continued to shine brightly, going into Wednesday as the league’s leading scorer (18.7 ppg) and three-point shooter (61.5%). She’s been flanked by another high volume, dead-eye shooter in Willems (10.3 ppg, 40% 3P), while the team has gotten quality contribution on the glass from senior forward Paige Bradford and Division II graduate transfer Kiara Bradley, who Hoyt called the team’s unsung hero.
The biggest addition, however, has been Pacific transfer Brookyln McDavid, who has taken a star turn in her new home. She struggled with foul trouble in the Summit opener against the Jackrabbits, but still pitched in 16 points and eight rebounds as the Roos fought back from multiple nine-point deficits. On the season, she’s flirting with a double double (16.9 ppg, 7.8 rpg) while adding a new dimension to the team.
“Her leadership has really taken our team to a different level in terms of what hard work looks like,” Hoyt said. “She has so much speed and athleticism in that position. She’s unlike any post player I’ve ever coached, and that’s been a really fun challenge for us to get creative and find ways to use her and grow her game.”
That core group led by Alnatas will look to challenge the state of South Dakota supremacy in the Summit, with SDSU and USD combining to win the 13 of the last 14 league tournaments. Finally reaching that elusive NCAA Tournament that just fell out of grasp for Alnatas and the Roos two years ago would be a flourish on an already captivating basketball journey.
