BILLINGS — Annika Stergar may as well have set up a cot inside Billings Central's Ralph Nelles Center ... because she pretty much grew up living there.
Her dad Jim is a longtime basketball coach for the Rams. She grew up attached at the hip to him — long before she won a pair of state basketball titles with Central. The father/daughter combo still hang out together.
"I do my dad's Camp of Champions basketball camp. I'm like the co-director, is what he calls me," she said with a smile. "But I like, help with the kindergartners and first graders."
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She has a magic touch with youth, but also a deeply competitive fire. Stergar is this year's only Midland Roundtable Athlete of the Year female nominee with 12 varsity letters between basketball, volleyball and track. She has been a piece of three championship volleyball teams and is qualified again for multiple state track and field events.
But her next path is basketball at Carroll College.
"A lot of my family goes to Carroll," she explained. "I have uncles and great uncles … the Hunthausen Activity Center, that's my dad's side of the family. So, it's just like a big part of our family."
Ironically, pronunciation of her name has been a source of lighthearted confusion over the years.
“ON-ika, ANN-ika, Uh-NEEKA … and it's sometimes my last name people can't get. Some of my teachers don't even know how to say my name, so I always have to correct them," Stergar said with a teasing smile.
One name that needs no correction: Taylor Swift. Stergar's favorite artist is someone she has seen once in concert — during her freshman year in Glendale. Ask her to quickly name a favorite song, though, and she hesitates.
"Uhhh, oh gosh … probably, I like … uhh … I don't know, I can't,” she said with a laugh. “But my favorite album is Tortured Poets Department, probably.”
Seeing Taylor Swift in concert ranks among her favorite lifetime memories. But some of the earliest and most treasured ones were made inside Central’s gym.
The Midland Roundtable athlete of the year awards banquet is at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 20, at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center.
