Lake Central senior Bryn Leonard stayed the course. Now her patience will be rewarded.
The 5-foot-7 guard figures to be a central figure for the retooled Indians, who reached the Class 4A state championship game last season. During that run, she averaged 3.2 points in limited minutes off the bench.
“She’s a kid, in a world of such instant gratification, she waited for her chance,” Lake Central coach Joe Huppenthal said. “That’s the biggest thing I respect about her, her parents and the way she was brought up.
“It’s like, ‘If I’m not playing X amount of minutes as a junior on the varsity at Lake Central, then what does that mean?’ Those roles for kids are hard to accept these days. But she’s the kid that embraced it. She’s the kid that constantly works to get better, and her time has come — and I’m so proud of her. Bryn trusted the process.”
Leonard is no longer in the shadow of former starters Aniyah Bishop, Riley Milausnic and Nadia Clayton and top reserve Kennedie Burks.
“People don’t know about her, but they’re going to know about her,” Huppenthal said. “She’s going to have a great year, and I’m excited for her, and she’s excited.”
Indeed, Leonard has been looking forward to this opportunity.
“Even since my freshman year, I’ve been really excited for my senior year,” she said. “We’ve had the same team since my freshman year. So I was really excited for this year to get a bigger role in everything. Even in the summer, I was doing pretty well. In our scrimmage, I did good. I’ve been adjusting well, and I’m just really excited for what’s to come for the season.”
So, too, are Lake Central’s two returning stars, senior guard Vanessa Wimberly and senior forward Ayla Krygier.
Leonard said she and Wimberly often do extra shooting workouts together.
“Bryn is a team player,” Wimberly said. “She always goes the extra mile for the team. I’ve watched her grow into an incredible player. She’s been preparing for this year, and I can’t wait to see how she does.”
Krygier expressed similar sentiments about Leonard.
“Bryn is a special teammate,” Krygier said. “I’ve been playing with her since middle school, so to watch her grow into the player she is today is really inspiring because her work ethic is hard to come by.”
Senior guard/forward Isabella Soria goes back even further with Leonard. They’ve been teammates since fourth grade.
“Me and Bryn have been good friends on and off of the court for a while,” Soria said. “We played for the same LC travel, AAU travel and middle school basketball team. I’ve seen her grow so much as a person and a player.
“After practice, we always help each other by rebounding for the other person. She is one of the hardest workers I have ever met and is constantly looking for ways to get better. I’m super excited to be able to play with her one last time in our senior year. Bryn is someone who has always been there for me, and I wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
Leonard’s future endeavors will include playing basketball at Purdue Northwest, where Bishop, Milausnic and Clayton are freshmen. Leonard committed to PNW in August, despite her minimal varsity experience.
“I was getting college looks in AAU,” she said. “With time, I would be playing here. It was hard not to think about transferring, but I wasn’t looking anywhere. I was like, ‘You’re playing for one of the best teams in the state, and college coaches know that and other people know that.’
“At practice, I was going against the seniors above me, and even Vanessa and Ayla, they’re so good, it makes you better. They’re the best people in the state, and I’d just keep getting better and better for my senior year. If I went to a different school that wasn’t as good and I wasn’t practicing like that and playing the whole game — we literally made it to state. It’s the best of the best.”
Huppenthal isn’t surprised Leonard had college options.
“She had seven or eight offers as a kid that averaged 3.2 points a game on our team last year,” Huppenthal said. “But everybody sees her work ethic, her character. You’re not going to find a kid that works harder than Bryn Leonard.”
Huppenthal saw that work ethic when Leonard was younger.
“Just how much better she got year to year to year, it was crazy,” Huppenthal said. “It just shows what hard work, dedication, devotion can do for you, whether it’s basketball, whether it’s academics or whether it’s just life in general. We try to pride our program on it.
“She’ll be a kid that you can talk about for years to come in the Lake Central basketball program. It would’ve been really easy for her to just leave, like, ‘Hey, I can go somewhere else and shoot it 25 times a game and average 40, 45 points.’ But she didn’t, and now’s her time.”
