Basketball season is over for the Butler girls’ squad, which means Karen Nimo’s one-year high school career has also come to an end.
But her time in the sport is, perhaps, just getting started.
Butler fell to Murray County, 52-49 in Tuesday night’s Class AA Elite 8 game in the GHSA state tournament. But the very next day, Nimo took to X (formerly Twitter) and started releasing her barrage of college scholarship offers — 11 in all as of Wednesday afternoon.
The schools who have offered are Indian University of Pennsylvania (IUP), Fort Valley State, Albany State, Davis and Elkins College, Concord University, South Georgia Tech, Pensacola State, East Georgia State College, Central Georgia Tech, Tyler Junior College and Albany Tech.
It’s quite the haul, considering Nimo never played high school basketball on any level before this season. To be considered to continue her basketball career on the collegiate level by any school is amazing, given her almost unheard of short stint in the game.
Now, it’s just about making the choice that can help her continue to develop her game.
“It’s really situational for her now,” said Darrin Shine of Shine’s Hoop Grind Academy. Shine discovered her skill while Nimo was in his gym class while she was a junior still at A.R. Johnson.
Shine believes her skill set can translate into Division I potential with the right coaching environment.
“If she takes the JUCO route, she can get those two years to learn and get better and get to a D-1 level,” Shine said. “Or you can go the D-II route, get into a good school there and then hit the transfer portal to a D-1 program in the next two years. Whatever it is, I just want her to pick the right situation and go from there. As she continues to gain understanding of the game, she’s gonna have a chance.”
Nimo had already been a solid performer for a Butler squad that boasted the Region 4-AA player of the year in junior Brayla Harris. Nimo came into the Region 4-AA tournament averaging a shade under 10 points per game. She’s scored at a 17.5 ppg clip during the six region and state tournament games the Lady Bulldogs played.
And while she’d, no doubt, rather still be competing for a state championship, the 5-foot-10 senior says pivoting toward life after high school basketball is easier because of the options she has.
Still, Nimo won’t be in a rush to make a choice. She currently has no time table to decide just yet.
“I’m really not sure,” she said, “but I do plan to go on all my visits soon, which is going to help with my decision making.”
