The pressure was off Nazareth’s Stella Sakalas this past season.
“I do think her junior year we had some good players, but they were a little inexperienced,” Roadrunners coach Ed Stritzel said. “She knew she had to do pretty much everything for us to have success.”
Sakalas did, averaging a double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds en route to earning Southwest Regional Player of the Year honors. But Nazareth’s season ended with a sectional semifinal loss to eventual Class 4A state champ Kenwood.
This past winter, the Roadrunners were more experienced and they — and Sakalas — wouldn’t be denied.
“It took the pressure off her,” Stritzel said. “In my opinion, she really enjoyed her senior year.”
And why not? Nazareth had a dominant run to the Class 4A title, routing Loyola 55-23 in the title game to finish 35-3.
And once again, Sakalas is the Southwest Regional Player of the Year.
It’s just one of many honors for the BYU recruit, who was named first-team All-State in Class 4A by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association and the Illinois Media (formerly AP) along with Co-Player of the Year in 4A by Illinois Media. She again averaged 18 points per game to go along with 7.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists.
But the individual awards and stats meant less to the 6-foot forward than her third title-game appearance and second state championship to go along with a 3A crown as a freshman in 2023.
She agreed with Stritzel that she was able to play more free and easy this season.
“We had such a great community and culture within the team,” Sakalas said. “It just lifts everybody up.”
She was more of a role player as a freshman, so capping her prep career as the focal point for a state championship team was that much more meaningful.
“I mean, the goal for the last four years. every single time, was to win state,” Sakalas said. “To have the opportunity to do it in 4A was the absolute cherry on top.”
Now she looks forward to the next step in what has been an interesting athletic journey. She comes from a sports family, as both parents were Division I athletes: dad Mike played football at Iowa and mom Cindy swam at Iowa State. Brother Henry, a junior football safety at Nazareth, has offers from Illinois and West Virginia among others.
After thriving in a supportive environment at Nazareth, Sakalas looks forward to something similar in college.
“That’s one thing I’m so excited for at BYU,” she said. “Everything is such a mirror to how it was at Naz.”
She knows college competition will be a big step up.
“You have to get smarter,” Sakalas said. “This is a bigger, stronger game. You have to get physical. Everything has to be done so much faster.”
With another state title in hand, she’s ready and eager for the challenge.