High school girls basketball: Hampshire's Kelby Bannerman has attention of Division I schools

When Kelby Bannerman's mom, Michelle Bannerman, was hired as an assistant on first-year Hampshire girls basketball coach Eric Samuelson's staff, Kelby was thrilled.

"She’s been coaching me since I was 5 years old," said Bannerman, a 6-foot-1 junior. "She coached me since bitty basketball, my feeder teams and even some of my AAU teams. When [Samuelson] offered my mom the job, she also got a key to the gym, and I was so excited. I'm there all the time."

Bannerman, who recently passed 1,000 career points, has been busy in the gym and busy in the recruiting process. The three-year varsity starter picked up an offer from Northern Illinois two weeks ago as part of a fast growing list.

Bannerman has other NCAA Division I scholarship offers from Davidson, Illinois State, Bradley, Indiana State, Southern Illinois, Eastern Illinois and Western Michigan as well as West Point.

Samuelson, who also coached Bannerman when she was a freshman on her AAU travel team, Midwest Elite in Deerfield, said Bannerman is actively being recruited by more than 12 conferences. Those include Atlantic 10, American Athletic, Big East, Big Ten, Big West, Horizon League, Ivy League, Mid-American, Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley, Patriot League, Summit League and West Coast.

Recruiting has really picked up in the past four months, Bannerman said. According to NCAA rules, coaches cannot contact players until Sept. 1 of their junior year of high school. Bannerman has a box full of mail from interested coaches – some just providing updates on the team and coaching staff.

Bannerman, however, isn't close to making a decision.

"I’m still trying to get a feel for a school, visit a couple of times and meet the coaching staff," Bannerman said. "It’s really important to see the players, too, and how they interact with each other, because that’s who you’re going to be living with the next four years.

"I also have another year of AAU, which I absolutely love. Playing for Midwest Elite is super fun. It’s one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made. In terms of AAU, it is the highest level of competition."

Bannerman was moved up to the Nike Girls Elite Youth Basketball League this summer at Midwest Elite and competed against some of the top high school players in the country.

Hononegah girls coach Randy Weibel, who has more than 680 career wins and coaches at Midwest Elite, approached Bannerman as a freshman after seeing her play at Dundee-Crown's Charger Komaromy Classic.

She has been with Midwest Elite ever since.

Michelle Bannerman played collegiately at Northern Arizona under Charli Turner Thorne, now the all-time winningest coach at Arizona State. Samuelson and Michelle Bannerman are focused on making Kelby a better team player first.

"Kelby works really hard, and just giving her the opportunities to keep getting better has been a fun process," Michelle Bannerman said. "Coach Samuelson does a fantastic job of challenging her, and really building our team up.

"Freshman year, no one really knows you, and now she’s getting doubled and triple-teamed. She can go out there and score a bunch of points, but what we need her to do is make the girls around her better, be a leader and more importantly a better teammate."

Through 17 games, Bannerman is averaging 18 points, 11 rebounds, 2.5 assists, two blocks and 1.5 steals a game. Hampshire (9-8), the defending Fox Valley Conference champion, is one game behind FVC leader Dundee-Crown, tied with Burlington Central for second place.

Samuelson has seen Bannerman mature a lot since her freshman year.

"The biggest difference from Kelby as a freshman to Kelby as a junior is her desire to get better at the mental game and emotional game," Samuelson said. "Kelby’s biggest jump is when she has the ability to play within herself, not let the referees get to her, not let any opponents get to her, not let anything get to her, and just play basketball."

"She's played on all of the big courts. She’s got the talent, and as long as she continues to work at being the best teammate that she can be, she’s going to be special."