Stephanie Burnham Needham
Being the tallest kid in her sixth-grade class, if not her entire middle school, wasn’t what Stephanie Burnham Needham (Wilson, 2000) would have considered a blessing at the time. Especially considering how she reached that status, growing an uncomfortable seven and a half inches in just one year.
But with the help of supportive parents, a tall older sister for a role model and sports, Needham was able to turn her height and athleticism into a competitive advantage that continues to serve her well 25+ years after she experienced those early growing pains.
Before those abruptly came along, Needham was just going about the typical kid routine of growing up, playing for hours on end in her southwest Portland neighborhood and, every once in a while, stealing a baby.
Hold on (checks notes). Well that’s what she said, but it sounded better coming from her…
“What I remember most from childhood is playing outside as much as possible with other kids in the neighborhood, spending summer days swimming at a neighbor’s, riding bikes and playing games we would make up,” she starts. “We played one called Steal the Baby which was like Capture the Flag only we did it with Cabbage Patch Dolls. From the beginning, it seems like my parents pushed us (Stephanie and her sister, Elizabeth) outside to just figure things out, and that got us into sports. Once I got a taste of sports, I discovered that I was naturally kind of good at them and I just ran with it.”
When one of the neighbors set up a basketball hoop in their driveway, Needham and her sister spent countless hours shooting baskets, using a flashlight to illuminate the backboard after it got dark so they could continue playing. Once she was old enough to start playing team sports, Needham says her parents stepped up again.
“They did a great job, taking us to clubs and practices; I think they really wanted us to try things,” she says. “Once I got into sports, they were just always there to support me.”
Needham got her first taste of team sports when she started playing club soccer in “second or third grade.” It was in that setting that she learned the valuable lesson that being the best athlete on a team didn’t automatically qualify her to be the star.
“I started out playing center, but then in the middle of the season I was moved back to playing the sweeper,” she recalls. “And I remember having trouble when I wasn’t the one scoring goals. I really had to work through being part of a team and not being the, quote-unquote, star. I think that’s when I learned that every position is important and you don’t have to get all the glory. That helped me learn how to be a good team player.”
Needham continued playing soccer until middle school, when she grew those seven and a half inches in a matter of months and, as a sixth grader, already stood nearly six-feet tall. Once again, she says, her parents were there to support her when she was dealing with the issues of adolescence multiplied by the fact that she stood out among her classmates by standing above all of them.
“My mom was always telling me to stand up straight and be proud of my height, but as a middle schooler it’s tough to understand that,” Needham says. “I’d go to dances and none of the boys would want to dance with me because I was a foot taller than them, and I remember being pretty insecure about it.”
Sports, however, leveled the playing field for her. After her growth spurt, Needham gave up soccer, figuring she could use her stature to better advantage by focusing on basketball and volleyball once she entered Wilson.
“My middle school years were pretty challenging, but once I got to high school and had a pretty amazing freshman year, that opened up a whole new world to me,” she says.
Needham credits much of her basketball success, indeed her “whole high school career” to the influence of the late Philip Abraham, who coached the Wilson varsity team her freshman year, and his assistant Howard Smith.
“Philip saw things in me I didn’t know were there and kind of built the team around what I could do,” she says. “He gave me a whole new level of confidence that helped me do things I didn’t think I’d be able to do.”
As a middle-school hoopster, Needham had played mostly inside and down low at the power forward position. But with Abraham’s guidance and encouragement she evolved into a more agile player, unafraid to venture outside the arc, becoming one of the team’s top three-point shooters in the process.
“I don’t remember any of my stats, but I had a great year,” she says. “There were about four of us on the team who did, and we wouldn’t have without Phillip.”
When Abraham left Wilson for St. Mary’s after her freshman season, Needham says she contemplated going with him before deciding to stay put. “I still sometimes think about what would have happened had I gone,” she says.
PIL Player of the Year
Not that staying at Wilson turned to be a bad decision for her. She was named 1st Team All-PIL all four years and made the All-State team as a junior and senior. Needham was Wilson’s team MVP and captain for three years and, as a senior, was named PIL Player of the Year.
Needham says one of her fondest high school memories was also, at the time, briefly one of her most painful. “I think it was my freshman year and we had a game at (a rival school). We walked off the bus and into the hallway and they had put up these posters that said ‘Stop Steroid Steph. She’ll have to pass another pill to get past us.’ I remember thinking I should want to cry, and I might have. But then I decided kicking their butts would be much better, and it just lit a fire in me. I think I hit five three pointers and had either a triple-double or at least a double-double.
“I do remember moments in games where there was something that just switched on inside of me and I’d kind of go crazy. Buckets would just start falling. I distinctly remember that feeling and I’ve never had it since. I’ve had kids, but that was a different feeling. And I’ve run a marathon, but that was different, too.”
While Needham says she was a better basketball player, she also loved and had her share of success playing volleyball, earning four letters, playing on Wilson’s PIL championship team as a sophomore and earning 2nd Team All-PIL honors as a senior, when she was also the Trojans’ team captain and MVP.
None of those honors, however, were as special as getting to play on the same team as her sister her freshmen and sophomore years, when Elizabeth was a junior and senior.
“She was an outside hitter and I was a blocker, so we stood together at the net,” Needham says. “The coaches used to get so mad because we’d often block a ball together and it would go straight to the floor and we’d both give these girls on the other side of the net a look that said, ‘Don’t even try to come at us’.”
As fun and rewarding as her Wilson sports experience was, when Needham was done with high school she was done with organized sports as well even though plenty of colleges were hoping she would continue.
Leaving Sports Behind
“At the end of senior year, the top players in Oregon and Washington played in an all-star game that I was chosen for,” Needham says. “Before the game, they announced each player, then the college they were going to. When they came to me, they announced ‘Undecided.’ And I remember thinking, Yeah, I think I’m done. Sports had just felt like my life for a long time, and I was ready to not do them anymore.”
Needham did attend the University of Colorado, where her dad and sister had gone, and then went to work for Williams-Sonoma in San Francisco for four years. After moving back to Portland and working with Nike and Macy’s, she relocated to New York City in 2012 to work as a buyer for Macy’s for three years.
She moved back to Portland 10 years ago. After spending some time as a stay-at-home single mom of two children, Gus, 9, and Watson, 8, she is now enjoying her work as a real estate agent while also supporting both her children’s athletic pursuits.
“I fully believe that sports bring so many good things to young people’s lives,” she says.
Needham says her induction into the PIL Hall of Fame in 2017 came as both a surprise and an honor. “There are times when I look back and wonder if I deserve it,” she says. “There’s still part of me that thinks I could have worked harder and could have done a little more. But I’m very grateful. It was a honor to be inducted, and the best part was it reconnected me to people that I might never have seen or talked to again. That was really special.”
Do you know Stephanie Burnham Needham? If you’d like to reconnect, she can be reached at stephanieburnham@gmail.com
Member Spotlight
Being the tallest kid in her sixth-grade class, if not her entire middle school, wasn’t what Stephanie Burnham Needham (Wilson, 2000) would have considered a blessing at the time. Especially considering how she reached that status, growing an uncomfortable seven and a half inches in just one year.
But with the help of supportive parents, a tall older sister for a role model and sports, Needham was able to turn her height and athleticism into a competitive advantage that continues to serve her well 25+ years after she experienced those early growing pains.
Before those abruptly came along, Needham was just going about the typical kid routine of growing up, playing for hours on end in her southwest Portland neighborhood and, every once in a while, stealing a baby.
Hold on (checks notes). Well that’s what she said, but it sounded better coming from her…
“What I remember most from childhood is playing outside as much as possible with other kids in the neighborhood, spending summer days swimming at a neighbor’s, riding bikes and playing games we would make up,” she starts. “We played one called Steal the Baby which was like Capture the Flag only we did it with Cabbage Patch Dolls. From the beginning, it seems like my parents pushed us (Stephanie and her sister, Elizabeth) outside to just figure things out, and that got us into sports. Once I got a taste of sports, I discovered that I was naturally kind of good at them and I just ran with it.”
When one of the neighbors set up a basketball hoop in their driveway, Needham and her sister spent countless hours shooting baskets, using a flashlight to illuminate the backboard after it got dark so they could continue playing. Once she was old enough to start playing team sports, Needham says her parents stepped up again.
“They did a great job, taking us to clubs and practices; I think they really wanted us to try things,” she says. “Once I got into sports, they were just always there to support me.”
Needham got her first taste of team sports when she started playing club soccer in “second or third grade.” It was in that setting that she learned the valuable lesson that being the best athlete on a team didn’t automatically qualify her to be the star.
“I started out playing center, but then in the middle of the season I was moved back to playing the sweeper,” she recalls. “And I remember having trouble when I wasn’t the one scoring goals. I really had to work through being part of a team and not being the, quote-unquote, star. I think that’s when I learned that every position is important and you don’t have to get all the glory. That helped me learn how to be a good team player.”
Needham continued playing soccer until middle school, when she grew those seven and a half inches in a matter of months and, as a sixth grader, already stood nearly six-feet tall. Once again, she says, her parents were there to support her when she was dealing with the issues of adolescence multiplied by the fact that she stood out among her classmates by standing above all of them.
“My mom was always telling me to stand up straight and be proud of my height, but as a middle schooler it’s tough to understand that,” Needham says. “I’d go to dances and none of the boys would want to dance with me because I was a foot taller than them, and I remember being pretty insecure about it.”
Sports, however, leveled the playing field for her. After her growth spurt, Needham gave up soccer, figuring she could use her stature to better advantage by focusing on basketball and volleyball once she entered Wilson.
“My middle school years were pretty challenging, but once I got to high school and had a pretty amazing freshman year, that opened up a whole new world to me,” she says.
Needham credits much of her basketball success, indeed her “whole high school career” to the influence of the late Philip Abraham, who coached the Wilson varsity team her freshman year, and his assistant Howard Smith.
“Philip saw things in me I didn’t know were there and kind of built the team around what I could do,” she says. “He gave me a whole new level of confidence that helped me do things I didn’t think I’d be able to do.”
As a middle-school hoopster, Needham had played mostly inside and down low at the power forward position. But with Abraham’s guidance and encouragement she evolved into a more agile player, unafraid to venture outside the arc, becoming one of the team’s top three-point shooters in the process.
“I don’t remember any of my stats, but I had a great year,” she says. “There were about four of us on the team who did, and we wouldn’t have without Phillip.”
When Abraham left Wilson for St. Mary’s after her freshman season, Needham says she contemplated going with him before deciding to stay put. “I still sometimes think about what would have happened had I gone,” she says.
PIL Player of the Year
Not that staying at Wilson turned to be a bad decision for her. She was named 1st Team All-PIL all four years and made the All-State team as a junior and senior. Needham was Wilson’s team MVP and captain for three years and, as a senior, was named PIL Player of the Year.
Needham says one of her fondest high school memories was also, at the time, briefly one of her most painful. “I think it was my freshman year and we had a game at (a rival school). We walked off the bus and into the hallway and they had put up these posters that said ‘Stop Steroid Steph. She’ll have to pass another pill to get past us.’ I remember thinking I should want to cry, and I might have. But then I decided kicking their butts would be much better, and it just lit a fire in me. I think I hit five three pointers and had either a triple-double or at least a double-double.
“I do remember moments in games where there was something that just switched on inside of me and I’d kind of go crazy. Buckets would just start falling. I distinctly remember that feeling and I’ve never had it since. I’ve had kids, but that was a different feeling. And I’ve run a marathon, but that was different, too.”
While Needham says she was a better basketball player, she also loved and had her share of success playing volleyball, earning four letters, playing on Wilson’s PIL championship team as a sophomore and earning 2nd Team All-PIL honors as a senior, when she was also the Trojans’ team captain and MVP.
None of those honors, however, were as special as getting to play on the same team as her sister her freshmen and sophomore years, when Elizabeth was a junior and senior.
“She was an outside hitter and I was a blocker, so we stood together at the net,” Needham says. “The coaches used to get so mad because we’d often block a ball together and it would go straight to the floor and we’d both give these girls on the other side of the net a look that said, ‘Don’t even try to come at us’.”
As fun and rewarding as her Wilson sports experience was, when Needham was done with high school she was done with organized sports as well even though plenty of colleges were hoping she would continue.
Leaving Sports Behind
“At the end of senior year, the top players in Oregon and Washington played in an all-star game that I was chosen for,” Needham says. “Before the game, they announced each player, then the college they were going to. When they came to me, they announced ‘Undecided.’ And I remember thinking, Yeah, I think I’m done. Sports had just felt like my life for a long time, and I was ready to not do them anymore.”
Needham did attend the University of Colorado, where her dad and sister had gone, and then went to work for Williams-Sonoma in San Francisco for four years. After moving back to Portland and working with Nike and Macy’s, she relocated to New York City in 2012 to work as a buyer for Macy’s for three years.
She moved back to Portland 10 years ago. After spending some time as a stay-at-home single mom of two children, Gus, 9, and Watson, 8, she is now enjoying her work as a real estate agent while also supporting both her children’s athletic pursuits.
“I fully believe that sports bring so many good things to young people’s lives,” she says.
Needham says her induction into the PIL Hall of Fame in 2017 came as both a surprise and an honor. “There are times when I look back and wonder if I deserve it,” she says. “There’s still part of me that thinks I could have worked harder and could have done a little more. But I’m very grateful. It was a honor to be inducted, and the best part was it reconnected me to people that I might never have seen or talked to again. That was really special.”
Do you know Stephanie Burnham Needham? If you’d like to reconnect, she can be reached at stephanieburnham@gmail.com
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