Penn commit Simone Sawyer helps lead Lincolnshire Stevenson to state title
LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. (BVM) – It won’t be long before Simone Sawyer becomes a Division I college basketball player. But after making her commitment to Penn last fall, Sawyer had unfinished business to take care of with Lincolnshire Stevenson.
As she entered into her high school career and even prior, Sawyer was inspired by the rich history Stevenson High School has had in the sport. The boys side of the program has produced talents like former Villanova and current Dallas Mavericks guard, Jalen Brunson. Meanwhile, the girls side has seen the likes of WNBA legend Tamika Catchings as well as her sister, Tauja, come through the program.
“Our high school has had a lot of good players so I think the whole basketball thing in this community is really big,” Sawyer said. “To go to a school that has really good alumni not just for basketball, but for any sport was really good.”
From the time she began playing in kindergarten, Sawyer has loved the bonds and friendships she has made through basketball the most. That’s been particularly true with her AAU team throughout high school, Illinois Elite.
“I absolutely loved it,” Sawyer said about the program. “The thing I loved about Illinois Elite is that anyone could play at any level … It wasn’t just anybody in this one certain area or one certain town, there were people all across the state. To get that range of kids and different teammates that I met through the whole state was really cool.”
However, going further back into her AAU career, and even her youth career playing locally with the Lincolnshire house league, Sawyer made a special bond with someone that would become her future high school teammate: Ava Bardic.
“We played for the same AAU team up until eighth grade and then after we played high school together,” Sawyer said. “We’ve been playing together for years. Our relationship is really good and we also lived really close to each other so over the summer we’d go to the park with some of our teammates and shoot … We have lunch together every day. We’re just really good friends.”
The friendship between Sawyer and Bardic helped produce two special basketball talents. Although she also played volleyball and soccer throughout middle school, Sawyer’s true love became basketball playing alongside girls like Bardic and watching her older sisters play.
Athletic genes run in the Sawyer family, as the Lincolnshire Stevenson senior’s older sister, Aleeah, is a former soccer player at Howard University. However, it is the confidence and mindset that Aleeah had after going from walk-on to starter for the Bison that Simone really admires.
“She was really good at all sports,” Simone said. “She was a walk-on at Howard and ended up starting her freshman year so definitely her work ethic is something that I strive to do.”
Simone has taken that work ethic and translated it to her high school career. As a team captain to end her time at Lincolnshire Stevenson, the 18-year-old took on a leadership role that she relishes being in.
“It’s super important,” Simone said about being a leader. “I know when I was younger, just in high school and with my AAU team, we had really good leaders and I know how much that helped me so it was really important for me when I got older to be the same leader.”
It was that leadership that helped Simone adapt to high school basketball in her freshman season. Making the varsity squad and becoming a starter in her first year, the 5-foot-10 guard helped lead the Patriots to the regional final.
“The game was definitely a lot faster, the girls were bigger and the pace is just totally different,” Simone said. “Everybody in the program was really nice. The older kids, the seniors, the captains really helped welcome me in … The growth and confidence I got my freshman year is something that changed the whole course of my career.”
Becoming a three-level scorer and better shooter, Simone already received college offers from Saint Louis and Indiana State going into her sophomore year, giving her even more confidence.
“Having those offers was really nice,” Simone said. “It was just a confidence booster to know that I’d have options. I was really grateful for that.”
Coming off another year of growth as a sophomore, things were not quite the same for Simone’s junior year. A shortened winter basketball season and no IHSA state championship to play for due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to some frustration for a dominant team that lost just two games all year.
Yet, it was also beneficial for the Patriots, and allowed them to build a foundation for what would be a special 2021-22 season.
“Not having the state tournament last year really hurt because our team was really good,” Simone said. “That kind of motivated us that there might not be a state tournament this year, but we can definitely do it next year. I think that kind of helped us into this season.”
With most of its core returning, Lincolnshire Stevenson was labeled as one of the top teams in the state prior to the season. As they began play, the talent the Patriots had was obvious, and they started believing they were true state contenders as they knocked off some of Illinois’ best teams multiple times through the season.
Lincolnshire Stevenson did suffer a couple of losses – one around Thanksgiving and the other at the end of the regular season – but Simone and her teammates again found adversity beneficial.
“We had one early loss to Loyola which I think really helped us,” Simone said. “It was an unfortunate loss but we really learned a lot. We went on like a 20-game win streak and then lost our last regular season game which also helped us. The win streak ended but we learned a lot.”
From there, a new winning streak began as the Patriots rolled through the postseason to the IHSA state tournament. In the Class 4A state championship game, Lincolnshire Stevenson dominated in large part thanks to Simone’s game-high 26 points to go along with five rebounds and five steals, taking down Barrington 55-43, and finishing the year with an impressive 36-2 record.
“Going into that game, I think we had a lot of confidence,” Simone said. “We knew the state championship was going to be our last game … We played really, really hard and like it was our last game. When the final buzzer sounded, it was a really good feeling.”
Stevenson had already beaten Barrington twice during the regular season – with one win coming on a buzzer-beater – and completed the tall task of beating one team three times over the course of a year. Simone concluded her senior season averaging over 14 points per game, and came out hot in the championship matchup, scoring 12 of the Patriots’ first 14 points.
For Simone and those in her class, it was a perfect way to finish things off, as the state championship was the program’s first since 1996. It showed just how much of an impact girls like Simone made on this program, who finished with over 1,500 career points, good for second-all time in Patriots’ girls basketball history.
“I think I got a lot of awards,” Simone said. “They’re amazing, but being the person who you are through your high school career is more important than player of the year awards and stuff like that.
“To be recognized as one of the better players to come through Stevenson as a person and a player, to be behind the Catchings sisters and other really good alumni … being recognized among those lists is really nice.”
Down the road, Simone will likely turn in the basketball court for a future career in architecture. But first, she still has a college basketball career ahead of her.
Also considering Ohio University and Western Michigan, Simone ultimately decided to become a member of the Ivy League with Penn.
“Penn kind of separated itself just because I want to study architecture and Penn has a really good architecture program,” Simone said. “So just the academics and then obviously a good program and good coaching staff. It checked all the boxes for what I was looking for.”
As she heads east, what Simone accomplished in Lincolnshire will long be remembered. The finish to her high school career went about as well as it could, and now Simone is ready to take that same success with her to Penn.
“It’s exciting,” Simone said. “I’m just looking forward to being around a new team and new coaches. It will be an adjustment for sure, but I’m looking forward to having fun and being the best teammate and player I can be at Penn.”
