Lenee Beaumont’s illustrious career ended in double overtime in the Class 4A state championship game on Saturday.
With that, the Indiana-bound senior guard joined her idol, Kathleen Doyle, by leading Benet to two state trophies. No Redwings player has earned more.
But it might not have happened if she hadn’t met Benet coach Joe Kilbride five years ago.
“I literally remember at seventh grade camp talking to coach Kilbride,” Beaumont said. “At the time, I was totally set on going to Fenwick, even though I live five minutes away from Benet.”
That’s because Fenwick’s Dave Power had coached Beaumont’s travel teams since she was in fourth grade. Looking back, Beaumont said she’s glad she changed her mind.
“To think that I would not have had the same experiences I had if I chose to go somewhere else is crazy,” she said. “I’m just so extremely grateful to play under coach Kilbride. He truly is a legend. He’s the best.”
The same could be said about Beaumont, the 2022-23 Naperville Sun Girls Basketball Player of the Year. She also is Gatorade’s Illinois player of the year and was named all-state first team by both the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association and The Associated Press.
“I think she’s everybody’s player of the year,” Kilbride said. “If they’re not, I don’t know what they’re watching.”
The 6-foot Beaumont is always fun to watch but never more so than she was this season, when she put on an all-around clinic in willing the Redwings to the state finals for the second straight season. She averaged 19.3 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.0 steals as Benet reached the state championship game, where she scored 27 points in a 62-57 loss to O’Fallon.
“She was just outstanding,” Kilbride said. “She was aggressive this year in a way she wasn’t in the past, yet unselfish at the same time. Just everything you want in a high school basketball player.”
If you don’t believe Kilbride, ask Beaumont’s teammates.
“She’s just amazing,” sophomore guard Lindsay Harzich said. “She’s so selfless, and her passes are just absolutely amazing. She’s the best teammate anyone could have.”
As a freshman, Beaumont looked up to a cadre of teammates on one of the best high school rosters ever assembled. She will be the 11th player from that team — which went 29-3 and was upset by Bolingbrook in a sectional final — to play college basketball, the seventh to do so at the Division I level and the third in the Big Ten.
“I think that experience as a freshman was something that I was extremely grateful for because I got to learn from the best,” Beaumont said. “Every day at practice, I was getting better because I was with the best, and coaches were constantly mentoring me.”
Beaumont has progressed steadily since then, taking her biggest leap forward this season, when she became team captain. To prepare, she began working with Jeff Pagliocca, who trains NBA and WNBA players.
“The WNBA is a goal of mine, and he’s put that in my head,” Beaumont said. “I didn’t realize how important it is to prepare yourself mentally, make sure you’re focused. I did better at being a leader this year, vocally and by my actions.”
Senior center Samantha Trimberger said Beaumont meant “pretty much everything” to the Redwings.
“She gives it everything she’s got every time,” Trimberger said. “There’s nothing more to say than she’s amazing. So I’m super proud of her.”
Despite seeing limited playing time as a freshman and having her sophomore season reduced to 12 games due to the coronavirus pandemic, Beaumont finished her Benet career with 1,300 points, 485 rebounds, 270 assists and 143 steals, ranking seventh, sixth, seventh and fifth, respectively, in program history. The Redwings went 95-17 during her career.
Next, Beaumont goes to Indiana, where she will join one of the top programs in the country.
“I have so much more to accomplish and improve on,” she said. “I’m a player that’s really never satisfied. Just about every game, as soon as I come home, I watch film, I talk to my dad and I’m like, ‘I wish I did this. I wish I did that.'”
Kilbride is sure Beaumont will do much more.
“Her ceiling is very high,” Kilbride said. “She’s a phenomenal player and an even better human.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
