Here’s to Sister Jean, star of 2018’s March Madness

You know you’re in unusual times when the unquestionable star of this year’s NCAA men’s basketball championships is a 98-year-old nun who stands all of five feet tall.

But you also know the world is not as messed up as it might be if it weren’t for people like this extraordinary woman — Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt.

Sister Jean has burst on the world’s sporting scene at the celebrated American college tournament this March like a badly needed spring tonic. In her small, sprightly body she embodies the virtues of experience, wisdom and unshakable faith, a faith that’s too often misunderstood or overlooked these days.

The chaplain, and also scout, for the Loyola University Chicago Ramblers, Sister Jean has the kind of strength you don’t get pumping iron.

She also knows when to call for a full-court press. And for all this, Loyola’s tall, strapping stars, who tower a foot-and-a-half or two feet above her, give her not just love but sincere respect.

Every day she teaches this lesson: Don’t judge — or dismiss — anyone based on first appearances.

Sister Jean might look like a little old woman. And there’s no denying she is a little old woman who gets around much of the time in a wheelchair.

But she has played and coached basketball. She has been devoted to the Ramblers since before they were last college champions in 1963. She’s served as team chaplain since 1994.

And while she offers spiritual guidance, she also gives this underdog team more than best wishes and

prayers.

She gives them first-hand scouting reports on opposing teams and delivers rousing, pre-game speeches as they huddle before tip-off.

“Don’t let those Tennessee team members scare you with their height,” she calmly intoned before a game Loyola was expected to lose but didn’t.

“Height doesn’t mean that much. You’re good jumpers. You’re good rebounders. You’re good at everything.”

Nor does Sister Jean’s contribution end with the game’s final buzzer.

She emails a postgame analysis to each Loyola player. Along with more spiritual insights.

As for Loyola’s players, strong, elite athletes at the top of their game and often with aspirations of multimillion-dollar contracts in the National Basketball Association, they are, to a man, true believers in Sister Jean.

At the end of every game, they go to her whether for praise or comfort and always, it seems, to give her an affectionate but very gentle hug.

Another basketball fan with links to Chicago, former U.S. president Barack Obama, tweeted Sister Jean his congratulations after a recent Loyola victory. There’s even a petition trying to get Sister Jean on the Ellen show.

But we think Sister Jean is more than a fleeting celebrity phenomenon.

In an era when demagogues, populists and dictators talk foolishness when they aren’t talking tough, when the value of people is too often measured by the size of their bank accounts, when bull baffles brains, Sister Jean is a genuine hero.

Youth and energy mean a lot in this world. Age — and the wisdom of the ages — sometimes mean even more.

Height doesn’t mean that much. You’re good jumpers ... You’re good at everything.” SISTER JEAN CHAPLAIN AND SCOUT