Wauconda's Mead fills the need

It's arriving 20 minutes early, without a yawn, for a 5:30 a.m. basketball practice, as she did Wednesday.

It's being inspired to want to help others by visits to the hospital to see her ill older brother and others.

It's realizing, "Hey, I'm a senior. It's my time to lead by example, to help others, to have them look up to me and not just because I'm nearly 6 feet 2."

You surmise that Lauren Mead has matured a lot since her freshman year, when she was a 6-foot kid playing, first, varsity volleyball and then varsity basketball.

Now, a senior at Wauconda and set to pen her name today on a national letter of intent with Lewis University, where she'll continue her basketball career, she knows what she wants to do with her life.

Need Mead?

You got her.

"I've always liked helping people and I like meeting new people every day," she says. "When my brother (Jack) was diagnosed with cancer, just going to the hospital and seeing all the (ill) people, just being able to help people out every day, I (realized) I'd really want to do that."

So, the A student is going to pursue a career in nursing at Lewis.

"It's really close to home and that was a big part of it," Mead says of the Division II school in Romeoville, which she chose over some D-I schools that expressed interest in her.

"I think I want to study to be a nurse and they really got a nice program. That really appealed to me. Just when I went to visit there, I really liked the coaches and I really thought that I could get along well with the players."

October 17 marked the two-year anniversary of Jack Mead's passing. The oldest of Jack and Gayle's three children, Jack was 18, a Wauconda senior, when he succumbed to brain cancer.

He and Lauren did everything together.

"We were like best friends kind of," Mead says. "I could tell him anything. He was a big influence with basketball, too. I always played basketball with him outside. We'd play around and play H-O-R-S-E, and he'd kind of beat me up a little because he was always bigger."

Lauren is the "little" one among the Meads. Dad and Mom are 6-7 and 6-2, respectively. Oldest brother Jack was 6-5. "Little" Matthew is 6-4 and a Wauconda freshman.

It's not easy to stand tall when you've endured a family tragedy like the Meads have, but they have. They're closer than ever.

So it's a good thing that Lewis University is a little more than an hour's drive from Wauconda.

Mead says she turned down a scholarship offer from the D-I Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Colorado State was also interested. So was Princeton.

"I know that my Mom and Dad will want to come to every one of my games," Mead says. "They'll want to see me play a lot. It made them very happy that I was staying close to home. When I was talking about Colorado State, they were like, 'That's too far away. We'd have to fly out to see you.' "

Mead certainly had options and could have had more.

As she gets set to embark on her senior basketball season, she just concluded another stellar one in volleyball. A three-time all-conference hitter, she pounded a school-record 309 kills this season in helping lead Wauconda to a 29-7 record and North Suburban Prairie Division title.

"I had some colleges looking at me for volleyball, too," she says. "They'd send me letters and they'd ask about me. I know that there was interest in me but they never pursued it. I thought about (playing college volleyball), but basketball's been in my heart. I've always wanted to play basketball in college."

Mead has scored 1,152 points in three basketball seasons and last winter helped the Bulldogs win their first regional championship in 15 years.

She's quite the high jumper, too.

"She's so athletically talented," Wauconda basketball coach Jaime Weber says. "Super coordinated and she has a great athletic build. She's also very smart - book smart - which allows her to catch onto things fairly quickly. And that's pretty adaptable, no matter which sport she plays."

For Mead, what's important now is helping others, like her teammates. She was a captain in volleyball this year and it's as if she knows it's OK, more than ever, to take charge. Weber says she's been more vocal during the first week of practice.

"I just want to be really dedicated this year and help all my teammates out," Mead says.

"And set a good example."

It's time.