DePaul University Athletics
DePaul Bids Farewell to Four Fabulous Seniors
2/22/2017 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
CHICAGO - For four special members of the DePaul women's basketball team, their time as Blue Demons is coming to an end as they prepare for their Senior Day ceremony on Sunday.
One transferred into DePaul and made a huge impact for this No. 19/18 program while the other three found their home at DePaul from the very beginning.
And yet, it almost seems like they have spent their whole lives together. Engaging in a conversation with the four of them, you would think they had grown up together. They have a bond unlike any other both on and off the court and really value that closeness.
Brooke Schulte, Jessica January, and Meri Bennett-Swanson came to Lincoln Park as freshmen from various locales and have each made contributions to the program.
Schulte is a fifth-year senior since she tore her ACL as a freshman and became a medical redshirt. Over the length of her career, she has developed into standout performer who was named to the Preseason All-BIG EAST Team and has been honored as the BIG EAST Player of the Week multiple times.
In conference play, she led the league in scoring through 16 games and has scored a career-high 35 points this season. Schulte has been named the BIG EAST Player of the Week five times---the most of any player in the conference and most since former teammate Brittany Hrynko accomplished that feat three years ago.
"I am from a very small town with about 800 people or so, and I wanted to get to the big city," said Schulte who has scored in double figures 18 games in a row. "The first time I ever came into the city was on my official trip to DePaul. The atmosphere, the hustle and bustle of the city life, getting on campus and meeting the amazing teammates---just being able to become a part of this phenomenal program made me choose DePaul."
January made an immediate impact upon arriving from Richfield, Minn. As a freshman, she was named BIG EAST Freshman of the Week twice as the Blue Demons' first option off the bench. She scored in double figures in 18 games. As a sophomore, she earned All-BIG EAST Honorable Mention. She was a 2016 Nancy Lieberman Award Finalist as a junior and was also voted Preseason BIG EAST Player of the Year by the league's coaches heading into her senior season.
"I was basically starting over," January recalled. "You get so comfortable with your high school team and with your AAU team and then you're kind of thrown into this new situation with brand new people, brand new coaches, and a brand new system. You have to re-learn everything, but for me it was a pretty quick transition. The speed of the game was definitely different but I think I adjusted pretty well."
That's quite an understatement. This multi-talented guard with a superior academic resume led the Blue Demons to the NCAA Sweet 16 as a junior and was also an integral part of the 2014 Sweet 16 qualifier as a freshman. January was all-BIG EAST as a junior and was a 2016 Sporting News Preseason All-American while becoming only the second player in program history to record a triple-double. She was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team and honored as the I-AAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year after her junior season. In nearly eight years of her academic career, she has recorded all A's and one B.
Despite being sidelined virtually the entire BIG EAST season after an injury in the league opener at Georgetown, her leadership played an important role in her team winning 13 of the next 15 games.
Meri Bennett-Swanson was a Class 3A All-State selection at Vernon Hills High School who led the team to a 33-3 record and a sectional title as a senior. She graduated as the school's all-time leading scorer, rebounder, and shot-blocker and was the first Division I recruit to come out of Vernon Hills. She is a two-time member of the BIG EAST All-Academic Team, a three-time recipient of DePaul's Shirley Becker Academic Award, and is one of four captains for the 2016-17 season.
"My favorite part about being a leader on this team is just watching people get it," Bennett-Swanson said. "Watching them finally talk on defense and care about it and seeing it all finally click for them. It's like being a proud parent."
Jacqui Grant transferred into coach Doug Bruno's program from Illinois. She made the move from the Big Ten to the BIG EAST and made a difference. She leads the BIG EAST in blocked shots and is second in rebounds with 11 double-doubles on the season. In BIG EAST play, she is averaging a double-double.
According to Grant, the Big Ten is a league populated with bigger and taller players, whereas the BIG EAST plays at a faster pace. Adjusting to that was the hardest part for this 6-foot, 3-inch forward from Maine South.
"Everyone I went against had at least 50 pounds on me in the Big Ten," Grant said. "Everything was physical in the post and physical at the guard position. But here, there is speed added to all of that.
"Having the support of everybody at DePaul helps you grow as a person and a player. They have pushed me physically, mentally, and emotionally and helped me grow as a person both on and off the court."
Grant won't soon forget the day she sent her release form from Illinois.
"I remember the day," she said. "I was finally moving out of Illinois and I was in the car on my way home when coach Bruno's name popped up on my phone. I was so nervous. But we just talked and you could tell that he still respected me and he was very nice to me even though I had said no to him the first time he had recruited me. And I thought if he can do that, it's an honor and I need to take it."
These Blue Demons are in the midst of an incredible season. They are 22-6 overall and 14-2 in the BIG EAST after starting out 8-0 in conference for the first time in program history.
The four seniors give a lot of credit for all this success to their head coach who was an assistant coach on the USA Olympic gold-medal women's basketball team last summer.
"Tough love is the best love, and he has pushed me to be a better person on and off the court," Schulte said. "He has pushed me to be a better woman on and off the court. He has made me into the college player I am and into the person I am today."
Grant made a smooth transition into DePaul and says she owes her success to Bruno.
"He helped me with my confidence both on and off the court," Grant said. "He puts his confidence in me and that gives me my own confidence. And I think that reciprocates to my teammates. If I put my confidence in them and they put their confidence in me, it's a winning cycle that keeps on working."
With their final two games of the regular season this weekend, the Blue Demons have hopes of continuing their winning ways right into the postseason when they want to be at the top of their game. All four seniors played key roles in the Blue Demons' 10-game winning streak Dec. 28-Feb. 18 and a recent stretch of 16 wins in 17 games.
Once the season does come to an end, each of the seniors has different plans.
Schulte has a 10-year plan for her life all laid out. But first, she will be graduating after this year and is applying to the nursing program at DePaul for fall of 2017.
Grant will be graduating after the fall of 2017 because she will be student teaching. She will have her degree in physical education with a health endorsement. She would like to stay in the coaching and basketball world, whether as a player or shouting out instructions from the sideline.
January is graduating after winter quarter of 2017. She wants to keep the dream alive and continue to play the game either in the WNBA or overseas. If that doesn't work out, January wants to go into broadcasting with aspirations of reaching the highest level.
Bennett-Swanson isn't quite sure what her plans are after graduation in 2017. But her teammates answered that for her. Schulte says that Bennett-Swanson will be the next president of the United States. January says that she will save the world. All that Bennett-Swanson knows is that she wants to pursue a degree in higher education.
This Blue Demon quartet has made a huge impact on the women's basketball program. Together, they helped lead the program to a pair of NCAA Sweet 16 appearances along with three BIG EAST regular-season titles and two BIG EAST tournament championships.
They are the latest in a long line of outstanding and compassionate student-athletes who work as hard---if not harder---in the classroom as they do on the basketball court while attaining one of the nation's top team GPAs. They strive with equal fervor to keep the program in the national spotlight while at the same time putting others ahead of themselves through community service and volunteer work.
And no matter where life takes them after the season, they will always have a home at DePaul.
January described what this team and this season means as her time comes to an end.
"This team means everything," she said. "We have all been playing basketball our entire lives and this is the last hurrah. We spend an obnoxious amount of time together, but in a good way, and for it to come to an end is like we are leaving for college all over again. It is like leaving your family."
Bennett-Swanson wraps up her season with the four principles she has been surrounded by in her time at DePaul.
"This team means community, support, unconditional love, and respect," she said. "That is the four ways I would characterize this group. It has been that way since I got here, and I hope it will be that way long after we are all gone.
"We are unbelievably fortunate to have those four principles surrounding us and guiding us every day. What we have here, we will never be able to duplicate."
