Natosha Gottlieb in action during a women's basketball training session Thursday.
Gottlieb hits weight room running on this side of state
Friday, August 14, 2020 | Women's Basketball, Women's Tennis, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Two weeks ago, Natosha Gottlieb was putting on Florida State gear and heading to work every day, so the initial transition had to be a little weird, right?
For the last four years, Gottlieb was the strength and conditioning coordinator for the Seminoles' indoor and beach volleyball programs, as well as their women's cross country team. On Aug. 3, she started her post overseeing the training of the Florida's women's basketball and tennis teams. Suffice to say, not many have walked the green grasses of both sides of that fence.
Welcome to the Orange & Blue side.
"It wasn't hard at all for me to put on the Florida stuff, but honestly it was hard for me to leave those people," Gottlieb said this week from her desk in the UF basketball facility. "You grow an amazing attachment to your athletes. I did that at Florida State and I will do that here."
That process has begun, as the women's basketball squad trickles back into town in anticipation for the fall semester, which starts Aug. 31. Gottlieb was hired after her predecessor, Justin McClelland, bolted in July for the men's basketball strength position at Clemson.
In Gottlieb, 28, the Gators landed a coordinator who may not have worked in basketball her previous stop, but knows the game backward and forward.
A native of New Orleans, Gottlieb and her family had to evacuate the city -- permanently as it turned out -- due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. They headed northwest, to Alexandria, Louisiana, where young Natosha learned to play hoops well enough to blossom eventually at NCAA Division III Louisiana College, where she tallied 1,380 points and was a first-team All American, as well as garnered American Southwest Conference Player of the Year honors as a senior in 2012-13.
Natosha Gottlieb during her All America career at D-III Louisiana College.
After that, Gottlieb got her master's degree in Exercise Physiology at LSU, while also helping train athletes part-time at nearby Southern University, as well as a local junior college. From there, she did two seasons grooming baseball, golf, tennis, track athletes at D-II Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach before going to Tallahassee, first to coach the cheer and dance squads, before volleyball came calling.
Basketball, though, is her first love.
"It's the sport I can relate to the best because when I explain to them how what we do in the weight is going to help them on, say, defense, or moving laterally, it's something that I can say from experience," Gottlieb said. "The thing with basketball, it's a more abstract thing. If you're stronger in [the weight room], it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to make more shots, but it gives the chance to have that quicker first step and be able to create more space, which gives you a chance to make more shots. I think being able finally to coach basketball gives me a chance to be my best version of a coach because I can relate to what's going on in here and out there."
And that's what her coaches saw in their Zoom meeting interviews.
"Her personality, that was the first thing you noticed," women's tennis coach Roland Thornqvist said. "Not only was she really outgoing, but also showed an excitement about taking on the challenge with the right amount of respect. She was not intimidated at all on the call. To me, that is a unique characteristic. She clearly had command of her work and the job description."
While tennis players aren't scheduled to show up until later this month, women's basketball coach Cam Newbauer began welcoming back his players last week. Gottlieb, he said, hit the ground running.
"The weight room is such a finite place, where results are the most important thing," women's basketball coach Cam Newbauer said. "We talk about the process, but the weight room, that's a different process in there because you have to give maximum effort to get the best results. It's so effort-based, so you want to find someone who has that mindset and knowledge of how to get them in there, but there's also the personality piece that generates that effort. They can't be too overbearing or too laid back. I think Tosha gives us the best of both worlds because she'll command the room, but also connect with the players from a number of different standpoints."
One very unique way, included.
So far, the women's basketball team has had nine of its 12 players return to campus, each of whom has been introduced to their new strength and conditioning coordinator.
Gottlieb joins Karin Werth and Tracy Zimmer as females overseeing strength programs in UF athletics, but she is the first African-American female to do so at Florida.
"That's not something I shy away from or act like it's not unusual, but I also know I need to relate to my white athletes as well as my Black athletes or Australian athletes or Brazilian athletes — all of them," Gottlieb said. "If Brynn Farrell comes in and says, 'Tosh, let's listen to Katy Perry,' I'm like, 'Let's do it!' If Danielle Rainey comes in after that and says, 'Tosh, let's listen to Ludacris,' I'll be like, 'Cool, let's listen to Ludacris.' I'm going to look at each athlete as an individual and I'm going to take the time to get to know them as a person."
And as a Gator.
That'll be a little different, also.
"We didn't have to rib her about it. She kind of apologized to us ahead of time," Newbauer said. "It's cool, though. It's not like she grew up a Florida State loyalist or anything like that. Of course, she understands the whole rivalry, but I can tell you she had no hesitation coming here."
UF, in turn, had no hesitation in inviting her.
"The ceiling here is just so high," Gottlieb said. "I haven't been around the entire group yet, but you can see the athletes and see that, man, if you get a little better at this, a little stronger at that, we can get a lot closer to that ceiling. There's so much growth potential here and I'm excited to be a part of it."
