Forget that Sarah Kwasinski is 6 feet 4 inches tall. Forget that her transfer from Resurrection to Fenwick has been a major factor in making the Friars the Tribune’s No. 1-ranked girls basketball team and a top 10 team nationally.
Forget that she’s just a junior and is already being targeted by college recruiters.
She’s one heck of a whiz at chemistry.
That comes from no less an authority than Fenwick chemistry teacher Ramzi Farran, a winner of the prestigious Golden Apple award.
“He told me she’s his top chemistry student,” Fenwick coach Dave Power said.
All this seems so remarkably apropos, because while Kwasinski will have to find the right chemical combinations to succeed in the classroom, Power has a similar job in Fenwick’s sparkling new fieldhouse.
“In all my years, I’ve never had a team that didn’t really played together,” said Power, whose Immaculate Heart of Mary team won the 1987 Class AA title. “Everyone tells me how awesome they’re going to be. But it’s a team game.”
Kwasinski isn’t the only new face Power gets to see at practice. He also has 6-2 freshman Erin Lawless, who, he said, “has all the tools to be an almost unstoppable player.”
So it doesn’t figure to make things any easier for the other basketball coaches in the Chicago area who were waiting for the day when Loyola’s Olga Gvozdenovic and Marshall’s Kourtney Walton enrolled in college and left the door open for someone else to win the Class AA title.
And despite the departure of other seniors like Lake Zurich’s Alicia Ratay, Glenbard West’s Kristi Faulkner, Waubonsie Valley’s Ashley Luke, Hillcrest’s Shavonna Hunter and Loyola’s Laura Sobieszczyk, the cupboards aren’t exactly bare. Marshall’s Cappie Pondexter, Fremd’s Maggie Fontana, Washington’s Angelina Williams and Stevenson’s Jenni Dant return–and they’re all juniors.
Andrew’s Tiffany Rudak, Maine West’s Julie Just, Wheaton Warrenville South’s Charliss Ridley and West Aurora’s 6-5 Jackie Shook and 6-1 Jordan Garrison are among the leaders in the senior class.
The problem these players and their teams face is that Fenwick already had an outstanding pair of guards before the arrival of Kwasinski and Lawless. All Marquette-bound senior Katie O’Grady did was average 23.1 points a game last season for the 26-7 Friars. She’ll pass the 2,000-point mark for her career this season. And 5-9 junior Claudette Towers was the leading rebounder on the team–while playing the point.
The problem was that the Friars just weren’t big enough to challenge Loyola or Marshall. That’s all changed for the 1999-2000 season.
“This is the best of both worlds,” said Power, who has more than 400 career victories. “An inside-outside game.”
O’Grady, who’s 5-8, heard of Kwasinski’s plans to transfer during the summer. “I played against her in grammar school and always talked with her,” said O’Grady, already feeling the chemistry will work. “I thought it was awesome. It’s great that we’re having a 6-4 girl come in. Nothing wrong there.”
Towers, already considered one of the top juniors in the nation, couldn’t wait for the arrival of Kwasinski: “We’ll be more respectable on the boards.”
O’Grady realizes all this talk and speculation is something for the East Suburban Catholic favorites to contend with. “We try not to think about the rankings, rarely talk about it,” she said. “We’ll deal with the pressure as it comes, not let it get to our heads.”
Loyola coach Tanya Johnson, whose then-No. 1-ranked team fell to the Friars three seasons ago–at home, no less–knows all about the pressure factor.
“On paper, they look like the No. 1 team,” said Johnson. “(Power has) the whole package. But paper doesn’t always win games. Chemistry is a big key.”
Johnson and others will get a look at Fenwick next week in the Waubonsie Valley tournament. Besides Kwasinski, Lawless, O’Grady and Towers, all-conference junior Amy Atchison and Devin Bernard (who missed the end of last season with a broken left ankle) return. And Power has Marisa Macchione, Erin Walsh and Michelle Szatko to step in.
Power will need all of them for what promises to be a demanding schedule. Fenwick again will be in the tough Dundee-Crown tournament at Christmas and, later, the Maine West “Sweet 16.” And, in a game that may have implications in the USA Today national rankings, Fenwick faces Mason (Ohio) and Michelle Munoz (daughter of former NFL star Anthony Munoz) in the Ameritech Classic Jan. 15 at Willowbrook.
TRIBUNE TOP 20
1. Fenwick
2. Marshall
3. Washington
4. Buffalo Grove
5. Stevenson
6. Andrew
7. Maine West
8. Hinsdale Central
9. West Aurora
10. Barrington
11. Evanston
12. Maine South
13. Hinsdale South
14. Maria
15. Loyola
16. Libertyville
17. Hersey
18. Morgan Park
19. Stagg
20. Wheaten Warrenville South
