Consistency trademark of Cary-Grove's Jakubicek

Claire Jakubicek meant a lot of things to the Cary-Grove girls basketball program this season, and over the last four years.

But there's one thing that stands out about the Trojans' 6-footer.

Consistency.

“You always knew what you were going to get with Claire,” said Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert. “With Claire, consistency always comes to mind.”

As do the number Jakubicek put up, not only in this banner season for the Trojans, but over her four-year career as well.

This season, she averaged 19.5 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 3.7 steals, shot 49 percent from the field and 76 percent from the free-throw line. All of that while averaging just 3 quarters of playing time per game as her team went 27-4 and had many blowout wins.

For her efforts, Jakubicek has been selected as the Honorary Co-Captain of the Daily Herald's Fox Valley All-Area team, an award she shares with Bartlett senior Jacki Gulczynski.

So while the numbers speak for themselves, the IBCA second-team all-stater who will play on scholarship at Northern Illinois University, teamed with classmate Meg Straumann to become leaders of a team that had just eight players all season, a team that won its third conference title in the last four years and a team that advanced to a sectional final contest for the first time since 2001.

“I just had to make sure everyone stayed focused,” Jakubicek said of her leadership role. “All we asked of everyone is to try your best. We knew we could count on each other and trust each other and that's what I tried to get out of my teammates. I just wanted to make sure everyone stayed close and we did that.”

It's something Jakubicek was a part of for four years at Cary-Grove, playing on varsity teams that went 101-19 in that span. She never missed one of those 120 games, scoring a school career record 1,700 points (14.2 average). She was a career 46 percent shooter (67 percent at the line) and had 795 career rebounds (6.6 average). She also averaged 2.3 assists, 2.9 steals and 3.7 deflections per game — all while averaging just over 23 minutes per game.

“She's been our MVP three years, all-conference three times, she made ESPN.com's Chicago All-area team, is up for Ms. Basketball and so much more,” Saffert said. “I never realized all the things she accomplished until I sat down and looked at the numbers. It's going to be a big hole for us to fill and I think she'll do well at NIU.”

Saffert also admired Jakubicek's calm demeanor, regardless of the situation.

“You could never tell if she was frustrated or angry,” he said. “That was her personality. How she kept her emotions in check with people double and triple-teaming her every night was astounding. I know if I'm playing us I know you have to stop Claire first. We talked about how to handle the double teams and the triple teams and she learned this year how to get the ball to the open person. You never knew what to do with her defensively because her multidimensional ability was amazing.”

Jakubicek will likely play outside more at NIU than she did at Cary-Grove, so she used the offseason to work on that part of her game, knowing her role with the Trojans this season would be more in the paint.

“This past summer I worked more on my outside shot and even though I didn't get that many opportunities I felt confident and I felt like I was an outside presence,” said Jakubicek, who said she will likely study business and sport management at NIU with an eye on getting into corporate sports management.

She also recognized the leadership role as being inherent with being a senior, and she embraced it.

“In the past I was pretty shy,” said Jakubicek, who played for Randy Weibel's Midwest Elite AAU team. “I talked to my teammates on the floor a lot more this year.”

When Saffert looks at Jackubicek he sees the complete basketball player as well as a well-rounded person.

“She's just so driven and motivated,” he said. “She's a happy person and I credit her upbringing for that. Her dad and mom, Frank and Ellen, are good solid people.”

“My parents were there for the good times and the bad and they helped me through it all,” said Jakubicek, whose basketball playing sisters Olivia and Abby are a sophomore and freshman, respectively, with third-grade brother Frankie soon to be shooting around the Cary-Grove gym.

“They pushed me to achieve and I couldn't have done any of this without them. I also want to thank coach (Andy) Donaldson.

“He always reminded me that you have to work hard but that it's a game and you have to have fun. And my AAU coaches. They really taught me how to play the game.”

And now it will be on to DeKalb, the next chapter in Jakubicek's life.

“I'm really looking forward to playing at NIU,” she said. “It's going to be fun.”

So excuse Saffert for a minute if he's just a tad sad when Jakubicek gets her diploma from Cary-Grove.

“I'm just blessed I was around her for four years,” he said.

As were we.