Daviess County’s girls’ basketball head coach Natalie Payne has been named to the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2025. She is joined by 12 others, including Nolan Burger, John “Hop” Brown, Hardin McLane, Don Parson, Julius Berry, Greg Buckner, Brett Burrow, Phil “Cookie” Grawemeyer, Anthony Hickey, Kim Mays Mills, Jason Osborne, and Adrian “Odie” Smith.
The Induction Celebration will be held September 6, 2025, in the Historic State Theater, Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
“It is a huge honor,” Payne said. “The older you get, the more you really appreciate honors like this… It wasn’t on my radar, but more than anything, I was really appreciative to be put in the category with all of the greats of Kentucky who played the game.”
A former Apollo High School star, Payne started every game for the E-Gals and helped lead them to three straight Regional Championships in 95, 96, and 97. During her senior season, Payne and the E-Gals reached the semi-finals of the state tournament. While at Apollo, she broke multiple school records and graduated as the program’s all-time leader in points and assists with 2,497 and 560, respectively.
After graduating Apollo, Payne played collegiately at Western Kentucky University from 1997-2002. She appeared in 117 games, averaging 14 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.1 steals. Payne was named to the All Sun Belt Tournament team in 2000 and was twice named to the All-Sun Belt team.
After college, she spent a year overseas competing in Finland and tried out for the WNBA Connecticut Sun in May of 2003. After not making the team, Payne transitioned into coaching, joining her brother Jason Powers, who was the head coach at Apollo.
“I always knew I wanted to be a coach, I just didn’t know at what level,” Payne said. “I thought about being a graduate assistant and maybe returning to WKU. My brother at the time was the girls’ head coach at Apollo with my dad. It was a no brainer to go back to the school that gave so much back to me, and my dad and I were assistants to him for about eight years. From there, I knew I wanted to be a head coach.”
A few years later, she left to become the head coach of McLean County, which only lasted a year.
She spent the next few years as an assistant back at Apollo and later at Daviess County as the freshman coach. Payne took over at the start of the 2012-13 season as the Lady Panthers head coach, staying there until the end of the 15-16 season.
At the start of the 2017-18 year, she became the head coach at her alma mater of Apollo, leading the E-Gals to a 9th District Championship and 3rd Regional Championship titles in 2020-21. After seven seasons at Apollo, Payne moved on and returned to Daviess County as a counselor, but after the head coaching job reopened, she was offered and accepted the position at the start of the 2023-24 season.
This past year, Payne and the Lady Panthers won the programs first ever Regional Championship – beating Owensboro Catholic 61-46. They advanced to the state tournament for the first time, losing to Danville Christian in the first round.
When speaking with Payne, acknowledged the impact Willis McClure has had in her basketball and coaching life.
“Willis McLure has been such an influential person in my life since I was at Burns Elementary,” Payne said. “He was the head coach at Apollo when I was there, basically built that program, and was there till my brother took over… I can call him at any time, and I know he will have my best interests in mind and will always support me 100%. To have someone like that in my life still at this age is such a huge blessing.”
But it wasn’t just her longtime coach and mentor, with Payne also addressing the basketball bound she has formed with her family.
“My brother also helped mold and shape me into the person and coach that I am today,” Payne said. “He gave me my first opportunity to be an assistant basketball coach, and for that I’m forever grateful. He is a defensive-minded coach, and that always stuck with me. I still use a lot of his drills and defensive schemes. He’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever been around. My brother, my sister, and I all played basketball at Apollo, and all three of us made trips to the state tournament.”
