Staying close to home

Renna Schwieterman didn't see any reason to delay the inevitable.

She knows where she wants to go.

The standout made her announcement this morning.

Schwieterman, a Jay County High School junior, announced her commitment to further her education and basketball career with the Mastodons of Purdue Fort Wayne.

“It’s definitely a stress relief and it’s really good knowing I know where I’m going,” she said. “I know the coaches and I know some of the players and I have that connection started already as a junior.”

The 6-foot Schwieterman picked the Mastodons over eight other colleges: IUPUI, Indiana State, Western Michigan, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Toledo, Akron and Valparaiso.

She’ll be the first JCHS girls basketball player to play NCAA Division I basketball since 2010 graduate Lindsey Wellman was a walk-on at Ball State.

“It’s a great opportunity for her,” JCHS coach Kirk Comer said. “It’s something she’s deserved, she’s earned. She’s worked really hard for this.

“She’s been playing basketball her whole life. This has been her goal to be a Division I basketball player. Now she’s going to get the opportunity to be able to do that.”

Schwieterman burst on the scene in her first varsity game, scoring 23 points in a 71-60 loss to Alexandria Nov. 15, 2019. She continued to eclipse the 20-point mark seven times, including a 28-point effort against Adams Central, on her way to 365 total points that season.

There was no sophomore slump for her, either. Instead, she just continued to impress. She broke Shelby Caldwell’s single-game scoring record with 43 points on Jan. 23 in a win against Southern Wells. That came during a four-game stretch in which she averaged 33.2 points per game.

Schwieterman finished her sophomore season with 418 points, putting her at 783 in two years and well on her way to reaching Shannon Freeman’s career scoring record of 1,458.

So far in her junior season, she’s averaging 16.3 points per game in leading the Patriots to a 7-2 record. She is on pace to become just the fourth player in program history to reach 1,000 points, and is likely to do so Jan. 4 against Concordia.

And now that she’s got her decision out of the way, she hopes to feel less pressure on the court.

“Just go out and have more fun,” she said. “Not necessarily try to impress anybody, I guess. Just trying to go out there, do your thing, have fun with your teammates and win.”

Comer agrees the team’s premier athlete will be able to play more freely, as well.

“I think it definitely will,” he said. “I know that was a lot weighing on her mind.

“No one really knows what it’s like until you go through it. That’s a lot of weight on your shoulders when you’ve got coaches calling you. Then the pressure to make the right decision that could impact the rest of your life.”

Schwieterman said the recruiting process was a bit of a challenge because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Most of her scholarship offers, she said, were over the phone, which made developing relationships with coaches difficult.

The proximity of Purdue Fort Wayne, as well as the school having her choice of major — education — made it an easy decision.

And she credits her parents, Nicole and Dale, as having a big influence on her decision.

“They just helped me open my eyes throughout the different schools, what kind of coaching staff, what kind of people (and) your environment … that’s a big thing,” she said. “I’m very strong in my faith so that was definitely something that was one of the top priorities for a college.

“Our head coach (Maria Marchesano) is a Christian and has faith in that. The assistant coaches, they are people I can talk about my faith and grow that with. I have relationships with them that I’m able to do so.”