Lake captain: Bauer's in the know for Lake Zurich
The daughter of a coach was thinking like one.
Lake Zurich's girls basketball team was playing a Thanksgiving tournament game at Dundee-Crown and held a 7-point lead with about a minute to go, when coach Chris Bennett huddled his players during a break.
"There was a timeout, and while I was giving instructions on strategy for the last minute, she looks at me and asks if they should foul," Bennett said. "I look at her wondering what the heck she's talking about, until I sneak a peek up to the scoreboard and realize we have 3 team fouls."
Lydia Bauer was a freshman.
The kid knew her varsity team had 3 fouls to give before the opponent would shoot a one-and-one.
She was precocious and bursting with athletic talent.
"How nice I knew it was going to be to have a young player with that level of understanding of the game," Bennett said.
How nice Lydia Bauer's Lake Zurich basketball career turned out.
A four-year varsity starter, she earned Daily Herald All-Area honors each season, capping her career by being named captain of this season's 15-player squad. Her 13.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2 steals per game led the Bears to North Suburban Conference and regional championships, as well as a 28-6 record.
She did all that, mind you, after being named captain of the Daily Herald All-Area volleyball team in the fall.
"This season was great," said Bauer, who signed a letter of intent to play Division I basketball for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay before the season. "You start off with small goals and our goal was to win the Thanksgiving tournament (at Dundee-Crown), and we accomplished that."
The Bears' confidence kept soaring, with Bauer, her sister Audrey and Olivia Allen leading the way. Lake Zurich won its first nine games.
And the bigger the game, the bigger, it seemed, Lydia Bauer played. On both ends of the court.
Which wasn't surprising. Since her freshman season, Bennett has praised her defense and has called her one of the best defenders he's ever coached.
"Whenever we needed someone shut down," he said, "we would look to Lydia at halftime and say, 'She's yours.' "
Whether it's knowing how many fouls her team has committed in a half, or knowing when her team needs her to step up on either end of the court, Bauer simply understands.
She grew up in gyms, after all. Rachel Bauer played basketball for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and was serving as an assistant coach at UW-Lacrosse when she gave birth to Lydia. Rachel later served as head varsity girls coach at Wheeling.
Lydia remembers hanging out with Audrey and their little brother Jerry in Wheeling's gym, while their mom coached.
"She would pick us up from school and take us over to Wheeling High School for her practices," Lydia said. "She'd coach her practices and we'd sit and do our homework - or there was always a basket available for us if we wanted to shoot.
"Most of the time all three of us were shooting, instead of doing our homework," she added, laughing.
No wonder Bauer became so basketball savvy.
"My mom being a coach, being at her practices, being at all of her games, and just sitting there and watching so many hours of basketball, I guess I just picked it up," she said.
While her mom taught her how to play basketball, her dad taught her how to be competitive. A former runner and football player in high school, Andrew Bauer, who's a Luthern minister, coached Lydia in grade school.
"He is definitely like the motivator," Lydia said.
Bauer wound up scoring 1,369 points in her four seasons, despite missing the final 13 games of her junior campaign after undergoing shoulder surgery. She also grabbed 729 rebounds. This season, she sank a career-best 58 3-pointers.
Four of those 3s came in a 17-point first quarter against state power Fenwick. Bauer finished with a career-high 29 points, as Lake Zurich won 63-56.
But it's not about offense for Lydia Bauer, who notes Lake Zurich's practice shorts read "Defense Wins."
"That (Fenwick) game we came out strong on defense and I think defense is what generates our offense," she said. "We were having great defensive stops on Katlyn Payne and Tricia Liston, and I was just having an 'on' night. Everything I was shooting was going in."
An off-the-charts athlete had a lot of "on" nights.
"She has the soft-touch lefty jump shot, a couple of solid post moves, the ability to handle the ball in traffic, and great court vision," Bennett said. "She has developed into the complete package and is going to do great things at UW-Green Bay."
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>All-Area basketball teams coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Cook County</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=276980">Girls team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276982">Boys team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276929">Captain: Ashley Wilson</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276927">Captain: Cully Payne</a></li> </ul> <h2>Cook PDF pages</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/cook1.pdf">Page 1 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/cook2.pdf">Page 2 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/cook3.pdf">Page 3 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/cook4.pdf">Page 4 </a></li> </ul> <h2><A HREF="http://dailyherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=706057&CategoryID=5971">Purchase PDF page reprints</A></h2> <h2>DuPage County</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=276984">Girls team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276985">Boys team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276917">Captain: Toni Kokenis </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276915">Captain: Danny Crawford</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276916">Past girls captains</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276914">Past boys captains</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276931">The best of the girls season</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276930">The best of the boys season</a></li> </ul> <h2>DuPage PDF pages</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/dupage1.pdf">Page 1 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/dupage2.pdf">Page 2 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/dupage3.pdf">Page 3 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/dupage4.pdf">Page 4 </a></li> </ul> <h2><A HREF="http://dailyherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=706057&CategoryID=5971">Purchase PDF page reprints</A></h2> <h2>Fox Valley</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=276978">Girls team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276990">Boys team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276709">Captain: Kati Yohn </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276820">Captain: Marc Little</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276780">Captain: Conrad Krutwig</a></li> </ul> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/multimedia/?category=19&type=video&item=88">Fox Valley captains </a></li> </ul> <h2>Fox Valley PDF pages</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/foxvalley1.pdf">Page 1 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/foxvalley2.pdf">Page 2 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/foxvalley3.pdf">Page 3 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/foxvalley4.pdf">Page 4 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/foxvalley5.pdf">Page 5 </a></li> </ul> <h2><A HREF="http://dailyherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=706057&CategoryID=5971">Purchase PDF page reprints</A></h2> <h2>Lake County</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=276987">Girls team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276981">Boys team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276907">Captain: Lydia Bauer </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276908">Captain: Brandon Paul</a></li> </ul> <h2>Lake PDF pages</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/lake1.pdf">Page 1 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/lake2.pdf">Page 2 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/lake3.pdf">Page 3 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/lake4.pdf">Page 4 </a></li> </ul> <h2><A HREF="http://dailyherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=706057&CategoryID=5971">Purchase PDF page reprints</A></h2> <h2>Tri Cities</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=276989">Girls team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276988">Boys team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276904">Captain: Taylor Whitley </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276905">Captain: Jeremy D'Amico</a></li> </ul> <h2>Tri Cities PDF pages</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/tricities1.pdf">Page 1 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/tricities2.pdf">Page 2 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/tricities3.pdf">Page 3 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/tricities4.pdf">Page 4 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/tricities5.pdf">Page 5 </a></li> </ul> <h2><A HREF="http://dailyherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=706057&CategoryID=5971">Purchase PDF page reprints</A></h2> </div> </div> </div>