Dani Daproza
Sport: Basketball
School: Leonia
Class: Sophomore. Age: 15
Accomplishment: She set a single game school scoring record with 40 points against Passaic Charter and in two games for the Lions last week, she scored 57 points, had 18 rebounds and 20 steals.
Paul Schwartz / NorthJersey.com
Dani Daproza gets it.
Whether she’s handling the ball in a basketball game, playing a mean shortstop in softball or playing running back and safety in a flag football game, she brings passion and joy to everything she does on every field or court.
“Playing ball is all about joy,” says the versatile Leonia sophomore. “If you don’t have passion, you can’t have joy and if you can’t have fun playing the games, you can’t use your full potential. You have to be in the game.”
“She’s just 5-4, but her speed and athletic ability is a tier over anyone else,” said Leonia basketball coach Joe Prenenski. “Last week we had half the team out with the flu and we ended up with two regular varsity players on the floor with three jayvee girls and she had to do everything. But she’s really more of a distributor than a scorer and her biggest asset may be on defense.”
Daproza grew up playing little league baseball in town, following in the footsteps of older brother Devin, who graduated from Leonia in 2023 and played a year at Emory & Henry College in Virginia before transferring to William Paterson.
“Playing baseball was the best part of growing up,” said Dani Daproza, who transitioned to softball at age 12 and began playing travel basketball at the same time. “It was always fun.”
Daproza’s versatility can be traced to what she thinks are her best athletic traits — her footwork and hand/eye coordination.
“It seems like you can put me in any sport and I can pick it up quickly because of those things,’ she says. But she also realizes that talent and natural ability alone are far from making the finished athlete.
“It doesn’t come easy because in order to get better, you’ve got to put the training in at the gym and stay after practice,” she said. “I usually stay 30-60 minutes after basketball practice is over and shoot 20 threes each from five different spots on the floor and 20 free throws. I try and do the same thing in softball after practice. I hit and hit and hit some more.”
Thanks to her parents, who both work in New York City but manage to get home in time to shuttle her between club and high school practices in basketball and softball and especially in the spring when she’s at her busiest − softball practice at the high school, AAU basketball and Leonia flag football.
“My mom especially, takes the bus to the city and then gets home, hops in the car and sometimes we go from practice to practice,” said Dani, who hasn’t yet decided which sport she’ll pursue in college.
“I know I want to go into forensic science and I guess I’ll end up doing the sport where I have the most success.”
This season it’s basketball and in the spring, its softball, both of which has led to all-league honors as a freshman. But she sees flag football as an up-and-coming sport.
“It seems like the most fun,” says Daproza. “At practice and when we play, my teammates and I just laugh and laugh and have a great time.”
And it isn’t why kids play sports — to have fun?
Dani Daproza does get it.
