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Wheaton College's Frazier looking for rosy season

Priorities. They've been on Hannah Frazier's mind.

Wheaton College's 6-foot-2 forward assembled a landmark basketball season as a junior.

Unanimous Division III All-American, College Conference of Illinois-Wisconsin player of the year, D3hoops.com Central Region player of the year, the most blocked shots in Division III, the Thunder's record for points in a season.

The theme her senior season: smell the roses.

"I guess the thing I'd want is to have no regrets," said Frazier, a fourth-generation Wheaton College student and Batavia's all-time leading scorer.

"I've gone through it a couple times but as a senior everything is the last time. I hear stories that everything goes fast and to cherish the moments. I just don't want to have regrets, just soak it in."

Of course on the court her focus remains steady because, as she said, basketball is a big reason "why we're here."

In 2018-19 the Thunder went 15-1 in the CCIW to win the regular-season title and qualified for the national tournament a fifth straight time.

No one wants to see that slip. Wheaton is 4-0 entering Wednesday's home game against the University of Chicago.

"It's always team goals," Frazier said. "It's more about if I feel I've played the best I can and the team plays the best it can - because there are expectations that this team will be successful."

This math major holds Wheaton's career mark for free-throw percentage at 85 percent. Frazier is second in scoring average at 17.6 points per game, sixth in blocks with 145, ninth in made free throws with 255 and 16th in scoring with 1.053 points in a little over two seasons.

She'll continue to climb those lists. She'll diversify her game and help her teammates get their points, too.

And she'll soak it in.

"This will probably be the last year I play athletics, it's kind of bittersweet. I don't want to get caught up in all the wins and losses because 10 years down the road it probably won't matter, but it's more about being with all the players and all the coaches."

The Duke of Seattle

The Seattle Sounders won their second MLS Cup in four years on Nov. 10, with a 3-1 victory over Toronto FC in front of 69,274 Major League Soccer fans at Seattle's own CenturyLink Field.

Why bring this up?

Seattle's general manager and president of soccer is Garth Lagerwey, an Elmhurst native and 1990 York graduate. A goalkeeper, he played soccer at Duke and then for the Kansas City Wizards, Dallas Burn and Miami Fusion. One of his jerseys hangs in York's hallways.

A game with meaning

Wednesday's girls basketball game at Bartlett was an event where the outcome was secondary in importance.

Bartlett hosted Fenton in the Hawks' first game since the death of 43-year-old coach Brad Hunt to a heart attack on June 4.

Fenton coach Dave Mello had suggested to Bartlett athletic director Jeff Bral that Fenton move its game originally scheduled for Jan. 28, 2020.

"So that they're playing some game where there is a meaning," Mello said.

A physical education and driver's education teacher at Bartlett, Mello worked alongside Hunt for years and also had him as an assistant when Mello coached the Hawks girls team in 2015-16 and 2016-17. Mello then took the Fenton coaching job and Hunt took over at Bartlett.

Mello said he was "stunned" upon hearing the news of Hunt's passing.

"I went up there on that Friday (May 31) and everything seemed as normal as could be," said Mello, who sat next to Hunt at a department meeting. The two talked about their summer basketball activities.

Sales from T-shirts and donations on Wednesday were earmarked for Hunt's wife, Emily, and their two children, Mello said.

"He put his family first, obviously, but then everything else was all about Bartlett, and making Bartlett like a second home not only for him but for all the students, all the athletes. Very few people were more about Bartlett High School than Brad," Mello said.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

Twitter: @doberhelman1

Hannah Frazier
Garth Lagerwey's soccer jersey hangs at York High School. Photo courtesy of York athletics
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