Fremd enjoys its role in the spotlight
More than once during this record-setting season for Fremd' girls basketball team, Brianna Lewis stole the basketball for a breakaway layup.
On Tuesday afternoon, the 5-foot-3 all-area junior guard stole a pep assembly and once again brought familiar roars from the Fremd faithful.
At a rally where Fremd students and parents filled the gymnasium bleachers to honor the Class 4A state runners-ups, Lewis wowed the crowd in a dance contest with football players Jack Albrecht and Erik Nelson.
She then drew the biggest cheers in an impromptu basketball scrimmage with the school faculty.
Lewis hit a long shot from the near the top of the key and later made nifty around-the-back dribble to sweep past her favorite match instructor Ken Goettsche on the baseline as the crowd roared.
"She's a star," said Vikings senior co-captain Emily Bieda. "A natural born star."
"Some kids like to entertain," said Fremd coach Dave Yates. "Brianna is our entertainer."
Lewis' dance moves were as sweet as her passes on the court, including the one she tossed around her back to a teammate during the scrimmage.
"I've been dancing ever since I was little," Lewis said. "To boost up my moves (which included some moonwalking and gliding), I looked at some video on YouTube. You've got to give the crowd what they want to see. I love big crowds. I like to go out there and have fun."
The Vikings (29-5) had fun from start to finish in a season that included a trip to Arizona to play in a tournament with national powers in late December.
"This will go down as the best team in the history of Fremd girls basketball," Yates told the huge crowd with his players, coaches and managers lined up on the baseline to start the ceremony.
The Arizona trip - a first for Fremd basketball - was a homecoming for Yates who spent four years in the state where he taught at Highland High School in Gilbert in the late 1990s.
An interesting anecdote developed as Yates served for four years as the school's boys basketball coach.
His 1999-2000 team, which included Houston Texas quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, finished second in Arizona's Class 5A (big school) state championship game.
How unlikely would it be to find another high school coach who has directed two state runner-up basketball teams, one a boys and one a girls, in two different states?
Yates' Vikings took second to Benet last Saturday with a roster that included four seniors - Haley Gorecki, Bieda, Caroline Macius and Megan Chernich.
Gorecki is an all-stater headed to play for Duke.
Yates made sure to send the decorated four-year starter out with some worthy praise, including the announcement that she is the Champaign News-Gazette's Player of the Year.
With four returning starters, including another Division I recruit (Bryana Hopkins has committed to Northwestern), the Vikings are excited about next season. Many key reserves return as well.
"Our fans were so great this season," Lewis said. "I was so excited to play for them and so happy to see how they supported us. A lot of us will be back and it was exciting to have a such a great season. We are looking forward to having another great one next season."
Yates said getting to the state championship game has been a goal for many seasons.
"I'm really happy for this seniors class, said Yates, an Elmhurst College grad who also coached at Lewis University and Gordon Tech prior to his job in Arizona. "And of course I'm happy for Haley Gorecki that she got to go out this way."
Gorecki went out as the school's second all-time leading scorer at Fremd with 2,166 points.
She is second to 2001 graduate Maggie Fontana, who scored 5,528 for Hall of Famer Carol Plodzien, the only other head girls basketball coach at Fremd.
"We had a great group of girls," Yates said of the school's winningest girl basketball team. "They made this whole season so enjoyable."
Lewis did her best to make Tuesday enjoyable.
After graduating from Fremd, she plans to study law enforcement.
She sure held court on Tuesday.