The latest example of how important senior Claire Austin is to the women’s basketball program at St. Xavier starts with a humorous anecdote.
During a conference call with Claire and new Cougars coach Travis Brewster, I asked if she was going to use her COVID-19 season of eligibility and return next fall for a sixth year of college.
“We’re in discussion about it,” Austin said.
More Top Picks Best Sunglasses Under 100
Meanwhile, in the background …
“Please! Please! Please!”
That was Travis, leaving no doubt about what his thoughts were on the matter.
I’ll tell you what. If I was him, I would be saying the same thing.
Every time we reconnect, there’s either some sort of revelation or we talk about how Austin has taken another step up the ladder of success.
This time, we could have just talked about how she’s doing so far this season. Austin, a 6-foot forward and Marist graduate, is leading St. Xavier (8-3) in so many categories it’s unreal.
But it was a revelation by Brewster that really had my head spinning.
It goes back to early May, when Corry Irvin resigned as the head coach to take an assistant’s position at Illinois.
From that day until Brewster arrived on Oct. 16, the Cougars didn’t have anyone to officially guide them. So Austin, in essence, became the temporary coach.
“There weren’t any assistant coaches around,” Brewster said. “Claire got help from the athletic directors in trying to run some things, but she was leading the program basically by herself until I got hired.
“When I got here, she had taken care of all of the administrative stuff as far as ordering new gear and the day-to-day things. She kept it going the right way. That tells you about her leadership skills and her ability to take care of business.”
Incredible, isn’t it?
Austin’s investment in the program is especially amazing. Once upon a time she passed on an offer by the late, great Bob Hallberg and accepted a scholarship to Davenport.
After one season at Davenport, Austin became homesick and asked Hallberg for another chance. He was more than welcoming. Austin redshirted as a sophomore and became eligible the following season. Sadly, Hallberg died before she had a chance to play for him.
Irvin got quite a gift when she took the job at St. Xavier. Austin, both as a spark off the bench and then as a starter, helped lead the Cougars to a 46-8 record over two seasons. In conference, they were 32-1.
Most of the team was returning for this season. Just when they were getting revved up to start their summer workout program, Irvin dropped an anvil on their excitement.
“When she initially told us, we were on a Zoom call,” Austin said. “It was a complete shock to all of us. None of us had any idea. As time went on, we really weren’t getting any answers on the coaching front.
“Then I realized that we do stuff in the summer. We couldn’t just take the summer off and come back and expect to be the team that we were.”
Austin talked with the strength coach to make sure he was posting workouts on the program’s team builder app. She checked in with teammates to make sure they were doing conditioning.
During the summer, Austin was the point person on organizing workouts.
“There were individual workouts because we have girls from New York and Wisconsin,” Austin said. “But we did meet three times to do the skill things. I texted with Jenna Badali about working out, and we had a 4-on-4 scrimmage with a couple of Lewis girls, girls from the neighborhood, and just kind of worked on our game together.
“It was hard to get everyone in the same place at the same time during the summer. It was more an open gym type of scenario. But it was nice to get everybody playing.”
What leadership. What an investment.
“If you ask my friends, they’d probably say I’m a little too invested,” Austin said, laughing. “But I think that right now, it’s a good thing that I have put most of my time and effort into the past three years.
More Top Picks Best Microfiber Sheets
“This program started off great with Bob Hallberg and we have a legacy to continue. I want to uphold that for him.”
A great tribute, indeed.