For Riverside Brookfield High School senior girls basketball player Kelley Tyler, great friends always are as close as her current sport.
The four-year, three-sport athlete counts plenty of best buddies as teammates, often in multiple sports.
“I just like to keep myself busy and there’s no better way than to spend time with teammates you love and a sport you love,” Tyler said.
“My friend group is basically all of the people I’ve met through sports and who I surround myself with outside of school. Sports has definitely had an impact on who my friend group is.”
The feeling rings true for this season’s seven basketball seniors — Amanda Buckley, Mayan Covarrubias, Niamh Larson, Julia Madera, Andrijana Nikolic, Emily Organ and Tyler.
Senior Night for the Bulldogs (13-13, 4-0 in Metro Suburban Conference) is Friday against Westmont.
“Always coming to practice makes me feel better because we just start laughing and doing weird stuff together,” Covarrubias said. “We all have so much fun when we play.”
Besides their basketball bonds, the seniors all play at least one other sport. In the fall, Covarrubias earned her third state trip in girls golf, Larson became the football team’s starting placekicker, and Tyler and Emily Organ played volleyball. In the spring, Tyler, Organ and Madera play softball, Larson and Nikolic play girls soccer, and Buckley is a jumper in track and field.
“I see Emily and Kelley all the time,” Madera said. “[My basketball teammates are] very supportive and just the game overall, I just really enjoy being around the team. The people push you. They encourage you. They’re there no matter what and are like my motivator to keep going.”
RBHS coach Jordan Mack played four basketball seasons at St. Joseph. He summarized his multi-talented seniors with one word: dedicated.
“You’ve got school year-round, a lot of them are great students as well. You’re sacrificing a lot of time, maybe from hanging out with friends. So they love it,” Mack said.
“You have to be mentally strong, emotionally, physically because right after we get done, they’re diving right back into [spring sports]. It’s tough, but they’re great kids.”
Organ will play NCAA Division I softball at Bradley. After taking junior year off from volleyball, she’s playing all three sports one last time.
“It’s good diversity instead of burning out and just doing softball,” Organ said. “I think it makes me way more athletic and, honestly, some of the moves I do in basketball correlate to softball.”
Many seniors mentioned enjoying basketball’s fast pace. Tyler appreciates the team aspect of her sports.
“I like competing with my friends,” she said. “You rely on your teammates a lot. You also have to work for yourself, too.”
Covarrubias, who will play golf at Missouri-St. Louis, sees benefits from the contrast of her sports.
“Just mentally, patience and trying to keep calm because basketball can really speed you up, and golf sometimes if you’re not playing well,” she said. “It’s good to get the team atmosphere in [basketball] and just kind of rely on myself and do what I do in [golf].”
Buckley’s basketball talents were noticed by former RB girls track coach Ian Robins. Last spring, Buckley joined track and plans to focus on long and triple jump.
“I’m still kind of new to it. (But) I think it actually helps my overall endurance and athleticism,” Buckley said. “Working out in the spring really helped me, even for the summer league for basketball. I was always in shape.”
An all-conference soccer player, Larson translated her kicking talents to football for the first time. The college prospect usually focused on club soccer and pre-season basketball in the fall.
“I like to think of myself as a busy person. I feel like when I’m home or don’t have things going on, I just get bored,” Larson said. “I feel like going into the [basketball] season I was a little bit less prepared but it still worked out.”
Nikolic is the basketball newbie. Encouraged by several seniors, Nikolic joined this season after two years of playing middle school and “in my alley.”
“I thought why not? I knew a lot of the girls on the team and they’re all really nice and friendly and encouraging,” Nikolic said. “The only hard part would be the physical aspects but it seems to be going fine.”
Nikolic still hopes to prove herself in soccer. She played junior varsity in 2023 after missing her first two seasons with a torn ACL and meniscus in her right knee.
The seniors have learned plenty of lessons from their sports commitments.
“The great thing is they play for many different coaches. They have different expectations so you have to rise to the occasion for each one,” Mack said.
“Being on time. You’re committed to the philosophy of whatever team you’re on. That will propel them far in life in general because there’s just standards you have to follow in order to be a varsity athlete.”
