Irish’s Westbeld comes home to Ohio for Final Four

Kathryn Westbeld had a lot on her agenda as she walked through the team entrance of Nationwide Arena to begin obligations for the women’s Final Four.

There were ESPN photo and video shoots Wednesday afternoon and a practice with her Notre Dame teammates later in the day. On Thursday, there will be interviews with a horde of media and another practice.

High on the list will be coming up with enough tickets for the Fighting Irish’s semifinal against Connecticut on Saturday for family, relatives and friends from Kettering in suburban Dayton.

“I’m still trying to get a head count, but it’s a lot,” Westbeld said. “It definitely has come full circle for me and I’m just blessed to be in this position to be able to play in front of family and friends. It isn’t too often that you come back (to your state) for the Final Notre Dame’s Kathryn Westbeld, center, went to three straight Division I state tournaments with Kettering Fairmont. The Firebirds won a state title when she was a junior in 2013.

Four.”

Area basketball fans might remember Westbeld and Makayla Waterman being the driving forces behind Fairmont High School making it to three straight Division I state tournaments. They won a championship as juniors in 2013.

Waterman signed with Ohio State and Westbeld with Notre Dame, but they hardly have gone separate ways.

“I talk to Makayla all the time,” Westbeld said. “I’ll see her very soon, and I’m looking forward to it. Almost everyone on our high school team is close, and we talk almost

every week.”

Notre Dame reached the Final Four when Westbeld was a freshman, but stayed home the next two seasons. What does she tell teammates about an experience that can be overwhelming?

“I tell them just to enjoy everything, take it all in,” she said. “It definitely is different being a senior rather than a freshman. Sometimes nerves and excitement can get into your head, and I’m trying to get them through it. With my experience I think I can calm everyone down.”

Westbeld, a 6-foot-2 senior forward, is a glue player averaging 7.9 points and 5.5 rebounds and shooting 61 percent. In a 90-84 victory over Texas A&M, her midrange jump shot with 1:15 remaining in the fourth quarter narrowed the deficit to one point.

“I thought that jumper she hit from the free throw line was the difference in the game,” coach Muffet McGraw said.

McGraw appreciates Westbeld’s team-first style. She has been playing with a sprained ankle.

“She shows tremendous toughness,” McGraw said. “We need her in the game because she does so many things for us that don’t show up on the stat sheet.”

Westbeld has been asked about the ankle for some time. Last week, she said it was interesting how it swells and has turned colors.

“I’ve been talking about one ankle or the other for a year,” she said. “I had ankle surgery on the other. There is pain, but you just fight through it.”

What has made Notre Dame’s run to the Final Four remarkable is that four players have been lost for the season because of torn knee ligaments. There are only seven scholarship players.

“Coach McGraw is a Hall of Fame coach, and I think that says a lot right there,” Westbeld said. “Her entire coaching staff is amazing.

“We wouldn’t be here without them leading the way. They’ve been uplifting every single day. They let us know that it wasn’t over after every single player was lost. They told us to look at what we’ve got. They’ve given us confidence.”