Two months have passed since Benet’s Brooke Schramek played her final high school basketball game.
Yet the good-natured teasing still persists from older sisters Emily and Kendal.
Brooke, a Wisconsin recruit, is unquestionably the most talented and highly touted of the three Schramek sisters, but she’s the only one who did not win a state championship at Benet.
“She will never live that down, especially from Kendal and I,” Emily Schramek said. “Kendal has two state rings and I have one, and that’s something Brooke will never get to say.”
Even so, the kid sister did all right, leading the Redwings to the state semifinals as a junior and to a 29-3 record as a senior.
“She was the most well-rounded player in our family,” Emily said. “I was very proud of her to see the type of player she developed into.”
Indeed, the 6-foot-1 Brooke played mostly guard for her travel team but Benet coach Joe Kilbride used her everywhere, including in the post.
“That was interesting to see,” Emily said. “It made me so proud to see how she can adjust and obviously excel at all of those different positions.”
All three Schrameks excelled during their time at Benet, combining to score 3,315 points during their four-year careers.
Brooke’s graduation closes out an era of unprecedented prosperity for the Redwings, who compiled a record of 245-53 over the last nine seasons. Benet won nine regional and four sectional titles and earned three state trophies, including the first two state championships in program history.
Emily scored 1,471 points during her stint, which was capped in the 2014-15 season when she and Kendal helped Benet win the Class 4A state title. Emily later played at Northern Michigan, and now works on the ESPN account for Paragon Marketing Group.
Kendal, a 2017 graduate, also played on the 2015-16 state championship team. After enduring two ACL surgeries, she will be a redshirt junior next year at Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
Kendal scored 529 points and is the program’s winningest player. The Redwings won 87.8 percent of the 131 games during her career. She played two seasons with Emily and one with Brooke.
“I don’t really get wrapped up in (statistics),” Kendal said. “I have always been the kind of player who will put my team first and I will do whatever it takes to help my team win. I love to win.”
Brooke, who finished with 1,318 career points, did her share of winning in four years, leading Benet to a 113-20 record. The Redwings were nationally ranked during her senior season, beating 21 teams that won regional titles.
The season ended with an upset loss to Bolingbrook in the sectional final. Brooke, who battled a sore knee most of the season, was forced to sit out much of the second half of that game.
“During halftime the trainer was stretching me and I could barely run,” Brooke said. “It was hard for me to see us break down at the end, and there was nothing I could do.”
Emily was there to console Brooke after the game.
“I said it was a great season and a great career and it’s not like basketball is over for you,” Emily said. “It was a chapter at Benet that’s closed, but college, playing for Wisconsin, is going to be so tremendous.”
Indeed, Brooke has nothing but fond memories of her Benet days.
“Obviously, I’ve always wanted to win a state championship and I never got to, but I think the teams I’ve been on, every single year we got better,” she said. “We had a crazy amount of talent.”
The Schramek era must have seemed like a lifetime to Benet’s opponents. But for the youngest Schramek, it went by too quickly.
“It felt like a long time, but it went by really fast,” Brooke said. “Everyone tells me high school is just like a blink of an eye and one day you’ll be a senior.
“I didn’t really believe it, but on my senior night, I realized I felt like I was a freshman just yesterday at my sister’s senior night.”
All of the sisters intend to return to Benet to watch future games but said it won’t be the same without a Schramek in uniform.
“It is definitely sad that it is over because I did enjoy coming back from college during breaks to see Brooke’s games,” Kendal said. “But everything has to come to an end eventually.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
