After wrapping up her playing career at the University of Wisconsin in 2024, Brooke Schramek was perfectly content moving on to the next chapter of her life, using her degree in a career with FCA Interiors in Naperville and keeping her basketball shoes packed away in the basement, the type of room that Brooke now works on designing. This Where Are They Now segment is presented by Grow Sports Psychology.
But when a neck surgery forced her father, Jim, to step away from his role as an assistant with the Benet Academy sophomore girls basketball team, Brooke was drawn back in. She initially told head sophomore coach Kelsey Coulter she’d be willing to lend a hand while her dad recovered.
Then, Hall of Fame head varsity coach Joe Kilbride, who coached all three Schramek sisters at Benet, gave his former All-State forward a call.
“Kilbride was like, oh, like I heard you were talking to Kelsey. I was like, yeah, he’s like, would you be interested in coaching? And I was like, I don’t really know. I mean, basketball has taken over my entire life. Now I’m finally getting into a new avenue that I really like, but it’s always something pulling me back to basketball, like the sports world or something. And then, yeah, now I’m back at Benet,” said Schramek.
Benet feels like home to the Schramek family
The Redwing program feels like home to now assistant coach Brooke and the whole Schramek family. Her parents were collegiate athletes, with her mother playing college hoops at Carthage and her father playing football at UW-Oshkosh before getting into coaching basketball. Her older sisters, Emily and Kendal, were standout players at Benet themselves, winning the 2015 4A IHSA state championship together, with Kendal playing a key part of the 2016 state title team as well. They both went on to play college basketball: Emily at Northern Michigan, while Kendal played for her father’s alma mater, UW-Oshkosh.
But Brooke, once the kid sister just trying to keep up, grew into an elite player with division 1 talent by the time she joined the program in the fall of 2016.
“I think being the youngest of two older sisters, like, we’d go in the driveway, they’d give me like, no mercy, doesn’t matter, don’t care if you’re the younger sister. But I think it helped, and it helped that my dad was a coach as well. And then once I got taller than them, I was like, this is fun for me,” said Schramek.
A varsity starter right away as a freshman alongside her sister Kendal, who was a senior, Brooke played with great skill, especially for her size at 6 feet. She eventually helped Benet make another trip to state as a junior in 2019, finishing the season in fourth place.
A memorable four seasons at Wisconsin
After a decorated career with the Redwings, in which she scored over 1,300 points, she moved north to play for the University of Wisconsin, where her freshman year took place during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Games were weird because we had cardboard cutouts of our family in the stands. So it was like kind of just like a weird, like the game sometimes too, like a practice or like a closed scrimmage, and then they would play sound effects if someone scored, like fake claps,” Schramek explained. “Halfway through the season, our parents were allowed to come, but they had to be in the boxes at the top level. Only five people from your family could come, and then you couldn’t see them after. So, my parents would wave to me from a clear box, and then drive home. So very interesting.”
Schramek eventually earned a starting role during her sophomore season, scoring over 850 points and grabbing over 400 rebounds in her career with the Badgers. But by her junior and senior years, she went from playing in front of no fans to competing in packed houses, especially when playing against University of Iowa mega-star Caitlin Clark. Women’s basketball was ready for its moment in the spotlight.
“So we typically would fill sometimes the lower bowl, like half the lower bowl for our games,” said Schramek. “But when Iowa came, the entire Kohl Center was sold out,” said Schramek. “When I came home, like junior or senior year, it was like total night and day because women’s basketball was now like totally taking over. Like my guy friends would ask me so many questions. I’m like, last year you didn’t care!”
Juggling working and coaching
After Coach Kilbride’s call brought Brooke back inside the Benet gym this winter, managing her full-time work schedule with the new assistant gig took some getting used to.
“I’m at my normal job. And then like, right after my job, I get changed and go right to Benet, and I’m home every night late. And I think initially I was like, okay, kind of processing what I signed up for because I forgot how time-consuming and draining the season was,” said Schramek.
While she’s still new to coaching, Schrmek brings credibility as a three-year starter for a Big Ten program and a voice of experience, who is not too much older than the current roster.
“I think it’s also nice for a team of young girls to have a young female to look up to, to talk to. I was told them, I’m like, even if it’s outside of basketball, like I’m here to help. Some of them didn’t have older sisters, and I want to be that type of role model for you. I told the girls that are now going to go play in college, I’m a call away, a text away, I’ve done this experience. So if you ever need to text me or need advice or anything, you can always call me,” said Schramek.
As per usual, Benet had a great season, earning a number one seed in the Bolingbrook sectional and winning a regional championship, reigniting Schramek’s love for the game.
“It was so fun. And towards the end of the season, I was kind of thinking the opposite. I was like, “Why isn’t it longer? Like, why is it ending?”
Ready for a new era with Coach Kelsey Coulter
Next year, a new era for Benet girls basketball tips off with Kelsey Coulter taking the reins as varsity head coach after Joe Kilbride’s retirement. Though she will miss her time with her old mentor, she is eager to return as an assistant on Coach Coulter’s staff and hopefully gain some bragging rights over her sisters.
“My sisters still will rub it in my face that they both won state, and Kendal won twice. They’ll rub it in all the time. Then I was like, okay, maybe I’ll win one while coaching!”
Whether she is busy designing a kitchen or designing out-of-bounds plays, Schramek is excited to see what her future holds.
“I think the Benet thing randomly falling in my lap and being such a positive thing has really opened my mind with, I don’t really know what I want to do for the rest of my life, but I’m also still really young. I’m just kind of appreciating that I do like what I do now and going to see where that takes me,” said Schramek.
For Naperville Sports Weekly, I’m Justin Cornwell.
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