Benet’s Sheehan gets head start at Valparaiso
Sheehan, who will be one of the youngest college players in the country, begins her season Jan. 30
Benet point guard Molly Sheehan has long looked forward to her senior season.
Sheehan will be playing soon, but it won’t be at Benet — and it won’t be at the high school level.
With the uncertainty around high school sports in Illinois, Sheehan decided to accept an offer from Valparaiso University to enroll for the second semester. She will be rostered immediately.
“In early December, my coach at Valpo gave me a call and said, ‘Hey, I have a question for you, don’t freak out,’” Sheehan said. “She said, ‘Look, the situation sucks in Illinois. We want to get you down here as soon as you can.’”
Sheehan did indeed freak out at the suggestion, but she decided to go after consulting with Benet coach Joe Kilbride.
“It was a very emotional thing to process and decide if it was the right move for me,” Sheehan said. “It’s unheard of before this year, but a bunch of schools are doing it. Credit to the coaches who are finding a way to get their kids there early and take advantage of a weird situation.”
Kilbride supports Sheehan’s decision. “We’re not playing, Valpo needed her, wanted her to come, and because of the NCAA rules this year, it doesn’t cost her a year of eligibility,” Kilbride said. “So how can you turn down a chance to get to play when we’re not? That’s what I told her when she approached me about it.
“She said, ‘Coach, if you think we’re going to have a season, I won’t do it.’ I said, ‘Molly, I don’t see us having enough of a season to turn down an opportunity like this.’ She would have turned it down in a minute if we were going to play.”
Benet does not allow early graduation, so Sheehan finished her high school education by taking online classes through Fusion Academy in Oak Brook.
“It sucks that I can’t graduate from Benet,” Sheehan said. “They’ve done so much for me. I wouldn’t have any of this going on without going to Benet. They said, ‘We wish we could have given you a proper send-off.’”
Sheehan arrives Thursday at Valparaiso and starts classes on Jan. 25. She will room with McHenry’s Katie Beyer, another early recruit.
Sheehan, who skipped a grade during elementary school, will be one of the youngest college players in the country. She turned 17 on Jan. 11.
“It’s going to be a weird experience,” Sheehan said. “We have some freshmen that are 19. I have always been the baby of my friend group, and now it’s a whole other level of being young. It’s scary, but I take pride in it.”
Sheehan will first suit up Jan. 30 for the Crusaders (6-5) against Missouri State. She does not expect much playing time but plans to learn from junior point guard Shay Frederick, the team’s starter.
“It’s like a free half season to get acclimated, understand what they’re doing, get to know the kids and coaches and how they want to play,” Kilbride said. “It’s a great opportunity.”
Still, leaving Benet is bittersweet for Sheehan.
“Playing high school basketball, you always think about your senior year and that you’re going to get that senior night,” Sheehan said. “That’s something that Kendall (Moriarty) and I and our other seniors have struggled processing, that we might not even have that this year. Now it’s a certainty that I won’t. It was super difficult to give up.
“If we were going to have a somewhat normal season, it would have been a totally different story, but you have to take advantage of what I was given.”