Boothe the 'lightning rod' for Warren

Warren senior Sarah Boothe always has been tall.

But this season she's standing a lot taller.

The 6-5 center is the lone returning starter from last season's 28-4 team and she already has helped the Blue Devils to a 6-0 start.

Boothe averages 20 points and 14 rebounds, and eclipsed the 1,500-point mark for her career with an 18-point performance against Marshall on Saturday, a 51-46 win that gave the Blue Devils the New Trier tournament title. She's also had to deal with being double- triple- and even quadruple-teamed.

"That is something to be one of those players to reach that; it is pretty special," Boothe said. "My next goal is to reach 2,000, but I don't know if that will happen."

Even if she doesn't get 2,000, the four-year starter has been the face of Warren basketball.

"Sarah has given our program credibility among the other programs in the metropolitan area," Warren coach John Stanczykiewicz said. "Any time you have a player of Sarah's stature it brings a lot of attention to your school. She's been with us while there have been other good players here, but she's been that lightning rod, that attention-getter for us. And that has allowed our programs to really experience some fun and great things in the basketball world."

In August, Boothe made an oral commitment to Stanford, choosing the Cardinal over DePaul, Notre Dame, Purdue and Wisconsin.

Warren is pinning its hopes on Boothe in its quest to win a fifth consecutive North Suburban Conference title and make another trip Downstate. The last time Warren went to the state finals was 2005 when Boothe was a freshman.

 

"That's my dream, because I had such a blast going down there," Boothe said. "We can't look too far ahead and we take games one at a time. When we look ahead, we don't play well, and that's when we get in trouble."