Post-Tribune names Sandrick Player of Year

Updated: March 23, 2011 3:46PM

Some players had a higher scoring average. Many others averaged more rebounds.

There were also players who dished out more assists and made more steals.

While all those statistical categories are important, they don't account for the intangibles a player like Lake Central's Carolyn Sandrick brings to the basketball court.

You'd be hard pressed to find a player who was more valuable to her team than the Indians' senior guard.

Sandrick averaged 16.3 points, nearly four steals, 3.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists, while swishing 50 of 152 shots from 3-point range and converting 78 percent of her free throws.

Perhaps more importantly, Sandrick's staunch leadership helped Lake Central (13-11) win its first sectional title in 13 years.

"Carolyn was really the glue that held this team together,'' Indians coach Leslie Iwema said. "I think she's the most mature kid I've ever been around. She made everyone else around her better, because she was never happy with mediocre. She was always getting on the other kids to work harder and reminding them to take care of the little things.

"It was like having another coach on the floor from the time she was a freshman through her senior year. Whenever we were doing drills in practice, she'd never let kids goof off. She never tolerated that at her basket. Kids knew if Carolyn was their partner, they were going to get things done."

Cool. Calm. Collected. Clutch.

Those words are only a few that describe Sandrick, who will play at Purdue Calumet in the fall.

"I never want to be the bad guy, but I also never wanted to be regretful for losing because of lack of preparation," Sandrick said."When you're at practice, you're there for a reason. I told my teammates before the season started we weren't going to lose because we weren't prepared."

After LC rebounded poorly one night the second half of the season, the team worked on boxing-out drills in practice all week. Yet the next game, the players weren't boxing out well enough, so Iwema strongly reminded them during a timeout.

Iwema said Sandrick immediately added a few words of her own.

"She said: ‘We've been working on this all week, why can't we do it now? Come on, box out,'" Iwema recalled. "Carolyn was always reiterating what I would say, yet still trying to keep her teammates together. She was always the one on and off the floor trying to point us in the right direction."

The next direction for the unflappable Sandrick is the college hardwood, where she'll finally get to play for two coaches she's always yearned to play for since she started attending LC youth basketball camps as a second-grader.

Those two coaches, former Lake Central girls head basketball coach, Tom Megyesi, and long-time assistant, Keith Hauber, will be Sandrick's coaches at PUC.

"I've known them since they coached here, so I'm looking forward to playing for them," Sandrick said. "When they left Lake Central, I was a little disappointed, because growing up I looked forward to them being my coaches. Now, it's finally the time.

"I'm excited about playing at a different level. I think it will be a whole new challenge."

Sandrick, who carries a sterling 3.88 grade-point average and ranks 97th in a class of 743 students, has a burning desire to coach some day.

"I know whenever I step away from the game, it won't be easy, so I'll have to be involved in some other element, so coaching would be the answer," Sandrick said. "I'll want to share what I've learned over the years with others. So many different people have influenced me in a lot of different ways. I've been to a lot of camps and had a lot of different coaches, who've taught me a lot of different things. I've been around people who've taught me so much about basketball - period."

Iwema's not sure what she'll do without Sandrick next season.

"She's one of the best student-athletes I've had since I've been in coaching," Iwema said. "Carolyn made herself into one of the best players in the area and one of the best guards in the state, in my opinion."

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