Stevenson senior forward Emory Klatt can rebound with the best of them.
That has been true for a long time. Klatt’s father, Eric Boddie, who played three seasons in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ minor league system, said he simplified basketball for her when she was a kid.
“When Emory was 6 or 7 years old playing with the boys, she said, ‘Dad, no one will pass me the ball,’” Boddie said. “I told her, ‘Just go get the misses because they miss 98% of the time. That’s the way you touch the ball every time.’
“That’s where the hunger to go retrieve the ball and get rebounds started for her.”
The 6-foot-1 Klatt, the 2023-24 News-Sun Girls Basketball Player of the Year, has been dominating the boards ever since. The DePaul recruit was the inside force during Stevenson’s run to the 2022 Class 4A state title and then averaged a double-double over her final two seasons. She became the program’s all-time leader in rebounds with 1,321, passing 1996 Ms. Basketball Tauja Catchings.
Klatt, who also ranks second in career points behind Catchings with 1,706, averaged 15.0 points and 12.0 rebounds in the last of her four seasons as a starter to lead the Patriots (29-4, 14-0) to the North Suburban Conference title and the Class 4A Fremd Sectional championship game. She was named the conference player of the year and was picked for the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association’s 4A all-state second team and the Illinois Media’s 4A all-state second team.
Klatt said putting her name in Stevenson’s record books is special.
“I had no idea of them because I wasn’t even focused on breaking records or anything,” she said. “For that to happen in four years and to end my senior season with a record being broken, I would never have imagined that.”
Regan Carmichael did imagine Klatt being a more dangerous offensive player and tried to make it happen in her first season as Stevenson’s coach.
“Emory was so polished entering the season,” Carmichael said. “We really wanted to work on adding more moves to her tool belt and refine those skills. We used her in different ways, like coming off a flare or coming off ball screens, to make her that much harder to guard.”
Carmichael said she wanted Stevenson’s offense to suit the players, particularly Klatt.
“In a world of guard play, she’s a stand-alone dominant post,” Carmichael said. “We knew she would draw a lot of attention in the post. She was double- and even triple-teamed at times. So we wanted to have an offense that didn’t put all the pressure on her.”
Klatt said she also started taking more shots from outside this season.
“Basketball has definitely changed in my four years,” she said. “My main goal this year was to expand my game on the perimeter, starting with jump shots and kind of moving to 3-pointers.
“That’s something I’m going to stress when I train this year before I go to DePaul. I know I have to shoot more threes in college.”
Klatt said she’s looking forward to that.
“It’s crazy that the next game I’ll play is a college game,” she said. “It’s pretty cool how far I’ve come.”
Bobby Narang is a freelance reporter.
