Claussner, Frazier at the top of their class
If you were grading the seasons Katie Claussner had at St. Charles East and Hannah Frazier had at Batavia, it's an easy A for both.
Claussner, the Saints' electric senior point guard, averaged 16.9 points and an area-best 4.2 assists while leading her team to their first regional title since 2009.
Frazier, the Bulldogs' dominating junior post, scored 30 or more points six times on her way to a 22.1 scoring average despite facing constant double and triple teams.
No doubt about it, an A for both.
If you were grading Claussner and Frazier in the classroom, the marks are even better. Let's call it an A-plus for each.
Claussner ranks fifth in her class with a 5.8 grade-point average and a 32 on her ACT.
Frazier is No. 1 in her class, a 4.375 GPA with a 30 on her ACT that she's taking again because she wants to beat her brother's score.
The two have more in common besides their fine play on the basketball court and excellence in the classroom. They are the co-captains of this year's Daily Herald Tri-Cities All-Area Girls Basketball Team, the first pair chosen in the 18-year history of the award.
Once again, both have similar advice on how they manage as much as success off the court as they have on it.
"A lot of it is time management and knowing what you have to get done," Frazier said. "Especially with games and practices you can't leave things until the last minute. Our school does a great job and our athletes do well academically."
"I think I'm kind of crazy with my academics," Claussner said. "I'm a perfectionist. It can be a blessing and a curse. I just get in the mindset with basketball and academics that I have to do the best physically and mentally that I can. I always give 110 percent on a test or playing basketball. People say they don't have enough time but it's how you balance your time and what your priorities are."
Scintillating Saint
That's not to say it's all similarities between the two - though Claussner and Frazier also both happen to be lefties.
The biggest difference might be their position on the court, Claussner the 5-foot-5 point guard and Frazier the 6-foot-2 post.
Claussner is the middle child to parents Mark and Christina, both her sisters cheerleaders.
"I'm kind of the odd one out," Katie joked.
Mark played football and basketball at Conant High School and it wasn't long until his middle daughter was into everything he loved.
"I grew up with a lot of boys in my neighborhood so I was a big tomboy," Katie Claussner said. "I played football, baseball, basketball with all of them. I was my dad's little boy he never had. I just got into all the sports and basketball turned out to be my favorite one."
That love of the game Claussner had at the start has never left.
"I'm constantly doing something related to basketball," Claussner said. "Going to the gym and shooting, I love going to watch all kinds of games. (Teammate) Sam Munroe and I went to all the different regional games."
It didn't take long for Claussner to get into more competitive basketball, first with the St. Charles Storm when she was 7 and later with Hoop Dreams, Lady Lightning and the Illinois Rockets.
"I fell in love with it right away," Claussner said. "I was always the shortest one out there so everyone underestimated me and I think that's what made me love it even more is people never thought I could be good at it and I was."
Claussner started attending St. Charles East camps. She watched the Saints' point guard at the time, Lexi Baltes, who led the team to their last regional title before this year's.
Claussner called Baltes her basketball role model.
"I was going to their games, she was the big deal," Claussner said. "She was valedictorian. I feel like we are the same player and person kind of. That's who I wanted to be."
Claussner also played travel softball growing up with the St. Charles Comets. Her freshman year at St. Charles East she played center field for the JV team and was called up to varsity for the playoffs.
Claussner decided to give up softball after her freshman year.
"I just knew basketball was my calling," Claussner said.
She played varsity basketball as a sophomore and watched - and learned - from another of the many standout St. Charles East point guards, Amanda Hilton.
During Claussner's junior season Hilton suffered a season-ending injury halfway through the year. Claussner took over at point and the rest, as they say, is history.
Claussner put up several big games down the stretch and helped rally the team despite losing Hilton. She engineered an upset of Batavia and came into her own.
"Playing behind Amanda sophomore and junior year I thought was great learning from such a great point guard and awesome person," Claussner said. "I couldn't have asked for anything better. She gave me so many tips.
"When she got hurt I just wanted to step up. That made me step up and become the player I knew I could become, do what I was capable of doing. It really helped me break through."
Unfortunately the season didn't end as she hoped, a 2-point loss to Willowbrook in their first regional game with Claussner missing a jumper in the final seconds.
"I kept a picture by my bed of the end of the game and the scoreboard and it kind of motivated me," Claussner said. "I said we are going to win a regional (as a senior) and that's what we did. I told all the other seniors we're not going out of here without a plaque. I think it's great we actually got to do that."
Claussner started her senior year making the all-tournament team at Schaumburg where the Saints went 4-1. She also made all-tournament at Wheaton North over Christmas.
In January Claussner had a pair of 30-point games in the same week, first against Conant and then Geneva which turned out to be the top two seeds in the sectional.
The Saints went on to win 11 straight games late in the season, including a regional championship victory against St. Charles North and a sectional upset of Conant. Claussner had 14 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists against the North Stars, then scored 15 of her 21 points in the second half against Conant.
Her coach Lori Drumtra said "the Saints go as Katie goes." Opposing coaches were just as impressed.
"No. 11 (Claussner) is the best point guard we've played all year," Conant coach Deirdre Naughton said. "Not only is she lightning quick but she's under control when she does it. She knows when to pass to her teammate, she knows when to take the ball to the basket."
Her teammates agree.
"She can penetrate, she can make a layup and she can pass it out. She is an all-around good player," said Munroe who is now in the role learning from Claussner that Claussner did for two years from Hilton.
"She's my role model. She helps me in practice, she always wants me to get better and I'm always trying to help her in any way I can."
Claussner can still remember when she met another teammate, senior Kyra Washington, who became one of her best friends.
"Second grade playground, she had just moved here, I asked her if she wanted to play football with my guy friends," Claussner said. "Obviously since then we became great friends and it helps on the basketball court. Being able to play out here with a great friend and also go this far - it's awesome having that experience with a friend like that."
Claussner's first college choice was Harvard. Coaches told her she was second on their list for point guards, but their top choice ended up taking that spot.
"That was a little devastating but I knew it wasn't meant to be," said Claussner, who wants to go into business and turned her attention to Washington University in St. Louis.
"They are the Harvard of the Midwest. I figured if I couldn't go to Harvard I might as well go to the Havard of the Midwest. I fell in love with everything. I knew that was where I was meant to be. I'm super excited."
Team-First Bulldog
About the only thing tougher than trying to stop Frazier once she gets the ball in the paint is trying to get the humble forward to say something remotely close to giving herself any credit.
This is how Frazier started her junior season: 20 points, 11 rebounds in the opener, then 36 and 11, 30 and 13, 32 and 20 and 28 and 10.
Frazier made all-tournament at that Trinity tournament, as she did later in the year at Oswego and Montini.
After numbers like those she started seeing more and more defensive attention, yet still led the area in scoring by over 5 points a game on efficient shooting - 55 percent from the field, 71 percent at the line. She finished second in the area in rebounding at 9.2 a game.
And this is a typical response from Frazier to a reporter asking about her offensive exploits.
"I know I always have great teammates and great coaches and people around me have always supported me," Frazier said. "You can't play without teammates who make the game fun. I've been very fortunate."
That kind of humility is a hit with teammates and coaches, and it is something even opponents pick up on.
"I like Frazier a lot," Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. "She is a nice kid, a humble kid, a deserving kid as well."
"Hannah is a very humble person," Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said. "She never looks for recognition. In a way that mimics her style of play. She is not very flashy, but she puts up huge numbers almost every single game. She battled through injuries and sicknesses and never said a word. She just kept playing. She routinely faced physical play. She never said a word. She just kept playing hard. She never complains, she just keeps working hard to do everything that is ever asked of her."
Born in Crystal Lake, Frazier's family moved to Batavia when she was 2. She has an older brother Noah - the one whose ACT score Hannah is taking aim at - a senior who played football and wrestled, and a younger brother Ben who wrestles in middle school.
Her parents Jeff and Erin graduated from Wheaton College, her dad a football player and mom a basketball player.
"A lot of that (humble attitude) comes with my faith and growing up in a Christian home," Frazier said. "You learn values and I've had great role models. My parents have been awesome to me and my brother I look up to him a lot."
Compared to the early age many kids get into travel sports, Frazier was a relative late bloomer, playing in a Tri-Cities soccer league, middle school volleyball and in-house basketball.
"I was always tall," Frazier said. "Third or fourth grade they (my parents) convinced me to do a park district little basketball camp for kids. I ended up loving it and kept on with it. I'm certainly glad they did it."
It wasn't until the summer before Frazier's eighth grade year that Bethany Orman, Batavia's point guard and like Frazier a three-year varsity player, asked if she would like to try the Lady Lightning. Frazier did and has played ever since, switching to Midwest Elite this past year.
Frazier stepped into Batavia's varsity starting lineup from Day One her freshman season. She made an instant impact averaging 10.8 points and 7.8 rebounds.
"There was an adjustment period," Frazier said. "It took me awhile to get used to the speed of the game and all that. The upperclassmen who were on the team were really supportive and did a great job helping me and Bethany adjust well. With eight girls we were very close."
As a sophomore Frazier was in the middle of the best season in school history. She upped her averages to 12.7 points and 8.4 rebounds, helping the Bulldogs beat Geneva twice and share a conference championship.
Batavia then won its first regional championship in 24 years, a game Frazier had 22 points on 11-of-15 shooting and 14 rebounds.
Frazier followed with a three-point play with 14 seconds to go, breaking a tie with Downers Grove North and giving Batavia the school's first sectional win. She had 21 points and 7 rebounds.
All that success and those program milestones made this year's 15-15 finish tough on Frazier, even though the Bulldogs graduated a pair of Division I players and didn't have a single senior.
"That (sophomore) season was really fun," Frazier said. "We were really proud of everything we did and we're hoping to get back to that point. We were disappointed with the way this season ended."
Frazier did everything she could, scoring 20 or more points 11 times. She had 13 games of 10 or more rebounds.
One year after graduating such a prolific scorer like Liza Fruendt, now at Missouri State, Batavia found another. One of those 30-point games came Dec. 20 against Rich South when she scored 31 of her team's 42 and became the fastest in school history to reach 1,000.
"There were some roles to fill," Frazier said. "I got a lot of confidence this year with the way my season went."
Frazier will head into her senior season with 1,371 points, 761 rebounds and 129 blocked shots on pace to leave Batavia with 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
Fruendt is Batavia's all-time scoring leader at 1,921 points.
"Liza, the amount of work she put in, that's motivation for me," Frazier said at the time of reaching 1,000. "She set a great example, keep working hard."
Next on the working hard list for Frazier is expanding her game. College coaches like her - she already has 10 Division I scholarship offers - and see her as a stretch four at that level.
That means next season fans should see Frazier on the perimeter in addition to the post.
"The big thing for me is improving my outside game," Frazier said. "I've been predominantly a post player. In college I'll be more perimeter with ballhandling and shooting. Extending my range is a big goal and I think it will help the team too."
Frazier said she wants to make her college decision before her senior year. Planning to study engineering, she visited Princeton and Leigh in the fall and plans to see Belmont, Valparaiso and Miami of Ohio among others. More offers are coming in like DePaul and St. Louis.
"I've seen different kinds of campuses, small, big, city, rural and it's helped me figure out what I'm looking for," Frazier said. "It's an exciting process. It's kind of crazy and goes by so fast."
Claussner agreeded with that sentiment. No matter how hectic things got, no matter how fast things moved, these two never got rattled, never slowed down on the court or off of it.