Caroline Segal has been playing basketball for as long as she can remember. 

After growing up having played in the Glencoe Park District, the New Trier Feeder Program and the All-In Athletics travel basketball program, the Glencoe resident headed to play at North Shore Country Day School for her four years of high school basketball.

While her senior year isn’t over yet, Segal will leave the school as one of the best players to ever play in the Raiders’ girls basketball program, especially after becoming only the second player in program history to score 1,000 points Dec. 17, 2019, in a 38-12 win over Parker in Winnetka. Mickeeya (Murray) Harrison, North Shore Class of 2002 is the only other girls basketball player to accomplish the feat.

Segal earned her 1,000th point when she drove to the basket and scored with four minutes, four seconds remaining in the first quarter. She would finish with a game-high 15 points in the win.

“I never even thought about getting 1,000 points,” Segal said. “It’s not something we talk or think about on the team but I’ve had a lot of success and support from teammates and this season, maybe it was something that I could have achieved, but not without my team.

“It’s been really surreal.”

Segal didn’t come into North Shore as a scorer, however. Even though she had done her share of putting the ball in the basket, 

After taking a back seat to a talented upperclassman group in her freshman year, she knew that more was going to be expected of her from there on.

“At North Shore, I’ve been able to improve on my distributing and scoring just based on the opportunities and athletes I play with,” Segal said. “In the past, it didn’t come as naturally to me. But here at North Shore, having our team together has helped my play.

“I got the confidence to go for it, push to the next level. We know each other so well, so I know where my teammates are going to be on the court. Ever since I came here, I’ve been able to hone in on those skills and have the confidence within the scheme of the team to do so.”

Coach Bruce Blair has been around many talented athletes throughout his coaching and professional career and said there are certain things that help Segal stand out, with one of the biggest being her team leadership, which was evident when the coaching staff challenged her by naming her a team captain prior to her junior season.

“She was a complete player when she came here,” Blair said. “She, as well as this team in particular, love getting new plays, new sets. The biggest mistake a high school coach can do is throw a lot of new stuff and players and they get confused. But they keep wanting to learn more.

“We can run a lot of stuff now. It’s pretty fun.”

Like many players at North Shore, Segal is a multi-sport athlete. She’s a standout field hockey player who helped the Raiders finish in the top four each of her high school years and will be playing at Middlebury College next season, as well as being a part of a girls soccer program that has finished as state runner-up in each of the past two seasons.

Having the experience of not only playing multiple sports, but also being successful in those sports has helped her, her coach says.

“We’re big believers in two- and three-sport athletes and it’s great that you get to play with different people and get to understand what it is to win in different ways,” he said. “Basketball is unique, where everybody is involved in every single play and you have a shirt surface and a lot of different skills you have to pick up on.

“Some of those skills are basketball-only, but some come from being athletes in different sports. I love coaching three-sport kids.” 

With North Shore being such a small school, one of the luxuries that the players on all of the school’s teams is that the players are able to become close, more like a family would.

That closeness and familiarity is what has helped the North Shore teams be so successful, especially in the past four years. It’s also what has helped Segal become not only a better athlete, but a better person.

“We don’t really talk to each other as starters and non-starters, and that’s not how it is in practice either,” Segal said. “We’re just a tight-knit group. It’s the 10 of us. We know each other well, we love each other, we cheer each other on whenever we can and that’s what is really awesome about having a small, but tight-knit team.

“For the last four years, three years maybe, I’ve been able to be a leader on this team. That’s special, being able from a young age, not just a senior, having a role on this team and feeling you have a big part. That’s what being a part of the small program has given me. My skills, as a leader, and the ability to connect with the younger and older girls on the team has improved so much from the opportunities I don’t think I would get if I was at a bigger school.”