For two years, the basketball hoop in Allie Palmieri’s driveway went untouched. No tattered net. No imprints of a ball on the backboard. The only thing giving it any wear and tear was the New England weather.
Palmieri was a soccer player. It was all she’d known growing up. Her grandmother had gifted her family the hoop when Palmieri was in the third grade, mainly hoping her brother would get some use out of it.
Time and time again, their grandmother would ask if anyone had used the hoop. The answer always remained the same.
“No, we’re not really into basketball.”
After years of walking past the hoop every day and seeing it staring at her through the windows, Palmieri decided someone needed to use the hoop. Becoming a Division 1 basketball player wasn’t even a thought at the time, but she figured Grandma deserved to have someone use her gift.
Instantly, Palmieri became addicted to shooting around in her driveway. Growing up in Trumbull, Connecticut, she grew up a fan of UConn women’s basketball. Palmieri fell in love with both playing and watching the game, spending more and more time learning as much as she could.
“I kept thinking, oh God, she’s gonna get burnt out, and then what?” Allie’s mother Wendy Palmieri said. “But she kept going … She was determined to get better.”
No one in Palmieri’s family had any connection to the sport, which forced her to teach the game to herself. The young fifth grader studied how players like Breanna Stewart and Moriah Jefferson dominated for the Huskies, doing her best to emulate them on her own in the driveway.
Palmieri’s passion for the game was unlike most kids her age. The middle schooler would wake up early before school every morning, practicing as much as she could before the bus came at 7:30 a.m.
Her early morning workouts were noticed by people along her street, with neighbors telling the family they knew it was time to wake up when they could hear Palmieri dribbling the ball on the pavement.
Years later, people in the community still recognized her from that same driveway, remembering the kid who never seemed to miss a day outside.
After school, Palmieri would sprint off the bus, drop her bag and shoot until darkness forced her inside, often with her mom begging her to come in from the driveway.
Using a spotlight to light up the driveway wasn’t good enough for Palmieri, who’s fifth grade science invention convention was coming up at an opportune time. She had the perfect idea: The All Night Basketball Lights.
Palmieri created a prototype, with lights surrounding the net, rim and backboard of a mini basketball hoop, presenting it at school. The presentation board had a section labeled: The Problem it Solves, with a bright orange sign.
“Every day I come home and play basketball until it gets dark,” the sign read. “When it gets dark I have to go inside and can’t play anymore … Some children like me want to grow up and be professional basketball players. How are we supposed to practice though, without being able to see the net, rim and backboard?”
Even snow and ice didn’t scare Palmieri inside, until a slip on the driveway ended with a broken tailbone.
“You can’t go out there and play Allie,” Palmieri’s mother, Wendy Palmieri, would say.
“But I have to mom,” Allie would respond. “I have to get better. I have to play every day.”
Palmieri didn’t play organized basketball until fifth grade, choosing the top team in Trumbull’s Catholic Youth Organization league despite still learning the basics.
Relying on effort and athleticism, she quickly caught up, helping lead the team to a CYO championship by eighth grade.
Kwame Burrell, who coached Palmieri’s rival team, quickly recognized her potential. As she prepared for high school, Palmieri joined a local training program where Burrell was head trainer.
“There was just no stop button with her,” Burrell said. “… She took responsibility for her own growth.”
Under his guidance, Palmieri continued to improve, impressing Burrell with the hours she dedicated to training, even outside their sessions.
Starting out at Trumbull High School after years of streetball and AAU travel across the Northeast, Palmieri immediately showed the dividends of her rigorous training.
This was the first time Palmieri or her family had seen that earning a scholarship to play Division 1 basketball was truly becoming a reality. Caught off guard, they tried to learn as much as they could about how to set Allie up for success.
As nearly 35 offers piled up by her sophomore year, Palmieri kept a notebook to track visits and calls. The process quickly became overwhelming.
“I was just on the phone all the time, and I was getting very stressed out because I would have to take a phone call in the middle of dinner, or right after, when I’m supposed to be hanging out with my friends, I’d be texting coaches,” Palmieri said. “… It was just a time of complete chaos.”
After a successful visit and some time to think, Palmieri decided to take her talents to Boston College.
Throughout the mayhem, Palmieri also made the tough decision to transfer high schools. She had been heavily recruited by Greens Farms Academy for years at that point, and made the move to the private school ahead of her junior season.
At Greens Farms Academy, Palmieri emerged as one of the top players in the state, becoming a Gatorade Connecticut Player of the Year finalist.
Joining the college ranks
Senior year for Palmieri was in 2020, with the pandemic creating unprecedented complications. After playing the best basketball of her career to that point, earning the 2020 Gatorade Player of the Year in the State of Connecticut, the season was cut short, and Boston College came calling in December.
The Eagles were short on players due to COVID, and asked the young shooting guard to graduate early. They wanted her to head up just after the holidays were over for the upcoming spring semester.
Over the next two weeks, Palmieri and her family rushed to get her cleared to play. Getting her transcripts and medical records as quickly as they could, the 17-year-old was off to Boston.
When she arrived, the team was all in quarantine, forcing Palmieri into a hotel by herself. She had under a month with the team before her first game action. The team she was playing against was the top-ranked team in the nation, the Louisville Cardinals.
Despite losing the game, Palmieri played in 24 minutes on the biggest stage of her career to that point, tallying three points, two rebounds and two steals.
With so many moving pieces, the 17-year-old struggled to find stability throughout the course of the year. She wasn’t seeing nearly as much playing time as she was used to, while also dealing with a worldwide pandemic all by herself in an unfamiliar city.
“God bless her, how she did it, being alone up there,” Wendy said. “… It was like a whirlwind. I don’t know if she even had time to stop and think about what was going on, because it was so crazy fast … It was tough. She’s more resilient than any kid I know out there.”
Year two at Boston College didn’t have the pandemic complications, but Palmieri struggled to find her role on the team. With all of the players back healthy, she wasn’t given much playing time.
Going from being the best player on any team she’d played on, to now only playing eight total minutes over the course of the fall was a difficult adjustment.
“There were weeks in a row at practice, I would come back and just hate basketball,” Palmieri said. “I’d be like, ‘I don’t want to go back to the gym. I’m not happy.’ I would come back and just be so miserable. I wouldn’t leave my room… I just wasn’t myself.”
By the middle of the season, Palmieri decided that hopping into the transfer portal was the best decision she could make for her future.
“Honey, what if you don’t get another offer?” Wendy asked.
“Don’t worry mom I will,” Allie replied.
Palmieri received several offers in the portal, narrowing her decision to UMass and Seton Hall. Wendy was confident UMass would be the choice, even buying Allie an electric scooter for Christmas to help get around the large campus.
Just one day before opening the wrapped scooter, Palmieri told her mother that the size of UMass felt overwhelming, and she committed to Seton Hall instead.
Injuries quickly derailed Palmieri’s time with the Pirates. Ankle issues limited her ability to practice consistently, and she saw just 39 minutes across 11 games.
“My coaches kept saying, I just need to see you play,” Palmieri said. “Every time I would play, I would feel good for a day or two, and then I would be shut down, because I couldn’t play through the pain… I just couldn’t stay on the court enough to prove myself.”
Despite the struggles, Palmieri never quit. The same motivation she had in the driveway as a kid remained, as she continually pushed herself to get back on the court.
“I kept thinking, ‘I put in so much work, I put in so much time to this, at some point it’s going to work,’” Palmieri said. “… [I just had] that trust and belief that, ‘If you keep working, something was going to happen eventually, it might not be now, but you have to stay the course.’”
The next step in the course for Palmieri was another stint in the transfer portal. This time around, she had her sights set on just one school: UMass.
The team’s new head coach, Mike Leflar, had been a huge fan of Palmieri’s game ever since the team had recruited her in high school. Entering his first season at the helm, bringing in Palmieri was at the top of his to-do list.
It wouldn’t come without some complications, however. Because this was her second time transferring, if Palmieri wanted to play in the upcoming season, she would need a waiver from the NCAA. She was also coming off major surgery on her ankle, not knowing if she’d still have the same explosiveness.
Leflar knew the caliber of player Palmieri was, and was willing to work with her however he needed to, as long as it ended with her coming to play for him.
“At no point did I tell [Palmieri] that we were going to try and pressure her or pressure the NCAA for a waiver to get her to be cleared immediately,” Leflar said. “[I told her,] ‘Let’s take the year, get healthy, and you’ll be ready to come back on the court stronger.”
Palmieri could feel the level of trust that Leflar had in her, deciding to attend UMass and redshirt the 2023-2024 season.
Throughout the course of the year, Palmieri spent her time rehabbing her injury, while learning the ins and outs of Leflar’s program. The rehab process wasn’t easy, as she struggled to have confidence in her ankle.
“Every time I would go off for a layup, my biggest fear was, ‘I’m going to land wrong, or I’m going to step wrong,’” Palmieri said. “[I told myself,] ‘It only happened that one time. It’s not going to happen every time. You did all the rehab, you did everything you’re supposed to do. If you think with that mentality, you’re going to miss out on the present.’”
Another aspect of the rehab process that Palmieri struggled with was giving her body time to rest. With her obsession with being in the gym and improving, Wendy and the coaching staff had to beg Allie to take time off so her body could recuperate.
Whenever Allie got antsy, Wendy would give her some ideas to fill her time, whether it was babysitting Leflar’s children, coaching middle schoolers in the community or painting something on a blank canvas.
As time passed, Palmieri’s confidence in herself continued to grow. Despite the Minutewomen struggling in her first season with the team, she was excited to be back on the court with a group of new teammates ahead of the 2024-2025 season.
Palmieri wasted no time making up for the years of basketball she lost. In her first three games with UMass, the senior scored 15, 20 and 16 points, respectively, while playing in at least 30 minutes of each contest.
She went on to put together an impressive individual season, averaging 12.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, two assists and 1.4 steals a game. In her first true collegiate action, Palmieri was proving that she belonged.
“It felt extremely good for my confidence, for my mental, and just to know that it did happen,” Palmieri said. “I feel like I was waiting forever to just have the opportunity that coach Leflar gave me, and then knowing that I didn’t just get the opportunity and waste it. I made something out of it.”
The success on the court for Palmieri has continued into this season as well. The Minutewomen currently boast a 15-4 record, over halfway through the year. Palmieri has been one of the team’s main contributors, playing in 32.8 minutes a game while averaging 12.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
With thousands of hours dedicated to becoming the best player she could possibly be, seeing it all come together has been a dream come true. Through all the adversity, Palmieri stayed driven, and was confident that she would reach her goals.
“I always think back, like this is what I dreamed of as a kid, to play on this stage, to play in front of an arena, in front of my family, and just show them that they didn’t waste their time,” Palmieri said. “It all worked out for a reason. They invested so much in me. So seeing it pay off is just unbelievable.”
From an unused hoop in a Trumbull driveway to becoming a key contributor at UMass, Palmieri’s path was anything but linear.
What never changed was the work.
Long before arenas, scholarships and stat lines, it was just a kid, a basketball and a driveway that never seemed to go dark, one shot at a time.