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The shrieking began before Meghan Mrowicki hit the floor.
All of a sudden, the fans who had been cheering went silent as the Hersey star writhed in pain.
Mrowicki, then a junior, described her howling as “an emphatic scream.”
“Actually, it wasn’t super painful,” she recalled. “It was more of just shock, and I knew exactly what it was when I did it.”
It’s not likely anyone in attendance at the prestigious Coach Kipp’s Hoopsfest at Benet that day — January 17, 2022 — will forget it.
Mrowicki suffered a torn ACL in her right knee, a devastating injury for any athlete. What followed was surgery and a typical nine-month rehabilitation.
What Mrowicki did next was anything but typical. Most people assumed Mrowicki, a Notre Dame soccer recruit, was done playing basketball, let alone high school soccer.
Hersey girls basketball coach Mary Fendley was preparing for life without Mrowicki on the court.
“It never occurred to me that she would play basketball again,” Fendley said. “She would talk about working summer camps. At one point she said, ‘Hey, Fenner, are we going to get new uniforms for next year?’ I’m thinking, ‘She’s just a manager. She doesn’t care if we have new uniforms.’”
That’s when Fendley realized Mrowicki intended to return.
“This kid is so tough,” Fendley said. “This elite soccer player is going to rehab and play high school basketball again. She’s something special.”
Indeed, what Mrowicki has accomplished during her senior year is remarkable. She proved she is one of the top basketball players in the state and is doing the same on the soccer field.
It was an unexpected development given that many athletes in Mrowicki’s place would have opted to play it safe and not risk another injury with a college scholarship already in their pocket.
But Notre Dame women’s soccer coach Nate Norman backed her decision to play.
“He kind of let me take the wheel and make sure I would be ready for when I come in for next fall,” Mrowicki said. “Whatever path I wanted to take, he was there to support me.
“He’s been super supportive with everything, and I’m super excited to be able to play for him next year.”
Mrowicki had two big reasons for playing both sports this school year. First, she’s not one to be idle.
“My nine months came up right in time for basketball, and it was just, ‘Where can I get the competition the fastest,’” she said. “Basketball gave the competition to me. That was a big part of it.”
The other reason came from the disappointment from the year before. Hersey’s girls basketball team was ranked No. 1 in Class 4A going into the 2021-22 season and was 19-3 when Mrowicki went down.
The Huskies lost that game to Fenwick 73-37 but rallied to go 8-2 after that before being upset 54-41 by Lake Zurich in a regional final.
Before this past season, Fendley’s 25th as Hersey’s coach, she announced she would retire at the end of it. Assistant Julia Barthel, the school’s athletic director, also was coaching her final season.
“For a long time, everyone has been talking about what our senior year is going to look like for basketball, like we’re going to go to state,” Mrowicki said. “Especially with Fend retiring and Barthel not being able to coach anymore, it was kind of hyped up as a fairy tale ending.
“To be able to get to play one last year with all my friends next to me, that was huge for me.”
Mrowicki missed the first four games of the basketball season before making her debut. The Huskies upset 2022 state runner-up Barrington and Maine South in her first two games.
Then on Dec. 9, Mrowicki suffered a medical emergency against Rolling Meadows and missed the next 12 games. Hersey went 7-4 in her absence.
“We didn’t lose any games with her for over a year,” Fendley said. “That’s how important Meghan was to our team.”
The Huskies were led by Michigan-bound senior guard Katy Eidle, a three-time first-team all-state pick who finished her career with 2,223 points, second in program history to former DePaul player Megan Rogowski’s 2,365.
But Hersey didn’t enjoy postseason success until Mrowicki, a 5-11 guard/forward, returned this season. She averaged 11.9 points and 3.7 rebounds while playing tough-nosed defense as the Huskies (28-10), who set a program record for victories, reached the state finals for just the second time. Their fourth-place finish equaled the 2009-10 team for best in school history.
Despite missing 16 games, Mrowicki was named third-team all-state by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association.
“She came up so big in big games,” Fendley said. “She had 26 points against Benet, 29 against Evanston. She’s the best athlete I’ve seen in person and not on TV. She could be a Division I basketball player. She’s that talented.
“I’ve been at Hersey 31 years, and I’ve never seen a kid that is just a freak-of-nature athlete. Everybody on our team knows that we would not have been playing in the state finals this year without Meghan. There’s no way.”
But Fendley, who ended her Hall of Fame career with a 537-229 record, was even more impressed by Mrowicki’s character.
“She’s so impressive with what she does athletically, but she is so modest about her abilities that she doesn’t want to bring attention to herself,” Fendley said. “When she was named player of the game against Evanston (which was played at Northwestern), she had 29 points, but she wanted to reject getting player of the game.
“She just didn’t want the attention of having to stand in front of people and get a plaque. She said it’s not just about points.”
For Mrowicki, the point of playing basketball was competing alongside childhood friends like Eidle and guard Kelsey Neary, a UConn lacrosse commit who lives six houses down from her. She has known both since third grade and another teammate, senior Natalie Alesia, since sixth grade.
They helped the Huskies go on a stirring playoff run, which included wins against Libertyville and Fremd in the sectional and Maine South in the supersectional. Losing to O’Fallon in the state semifinals and Geneva in the third-place game didn’t take away from the experience.
“It was just a lot of fun,” Mrowicki said. “Everything about it was super fun, and taking everything in was a huge part of it. We all kind of wanted to stay in the moment and not take anything for granted because of the path it took to get there.
“It was definitely not easy at all and not smooth because (sophomore) KiKi (Craft) was out for some time, I was out, Kelsey was out for a while.
“Everyone played their role that they needed to do in order to get to where we are, so it was huge.”
Two days after basketball season ended, Mrowicki joined Hersey’s girls soccer team, which had been training for more than a week. She hadn’t played in nearly 16 months but immediately impressed coach Michael Rusniak.
“She’s been a great addition,” Rusniak said. “This past week was about her getting her feet under her. I said, ‘Give yourself some grace. You’re getting your legs underneath you. You’ll be fine. We don’t expect you to be some sort of savior that’s going to come in. We want you to primarily have a ton of fun and just get you ready for the next level.’”
Mrowicki had never played high school soccer. Her freshman season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and she played club for Eclipse Select as a sophomore.
But the forward has fit right in on an up-and-coming team that has several three-year starters.
“She’s just a humble person,” Rusniak said. “She knows there’s a lot of hype around her. She knows she is extremely highly regarded as a player, and she actually doesn’t want any attention. She just loves to compete.
“She’s incredibly competitive, and I talked to her the other day, it’s just something in her that makes her special. That’s something that you can’t get coached on; that’s not something that you can teach.”
The Huskies lost to Libertyville 1-0 in their season opener. In their second game, they rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the final 20 minutes to beat Stevenson 3-2. Mrowicki scored two goals, including the game winner, sandwiched around a goal by freshman forward Gracie Lisota. It was a milestone victory because Stevenson had beaten Hersey twice last season, including in a regional final.
“It was huge,” Mrowicki said. “My first game it was tough because I had a really rough game. It was not what I expected at all. So going into the second game, I kind of had nothing to lose. I was like, ‘OK, I got the bad game out of the way, and let’s go in and put everything in.’
“I kind of went into it with a lot better attitude, and my effort was 100% there, and I think everyone else too. We really wanted to win that game, and we didn’t give up.”
That refusal to give up has encouraged Lisota, who is like many kids in Arlington Heights and has followed Mrowicki’s exploits.
“I first heard about her when I went to a varsity basketball game a few years ago and I heard that she’s this really good soccer player who hopefully is going to play high school,” Lisota said. “I was really excited because I knew she was a good player and she would help our team a lot.
“One thing I’ve noticed is she always gives 110% of her effort and always goes after the ball even if she’s far away from it. So it’s taught me to work harder, to always give your best and do what’s best for your team.”
Like Fendley, Rusniak quickly found that Mrowicki always wants what’s best for the team.
“We’re so fortunate,” Rusniak said. “She just makes everybody around her better. She’s extremely selfless. Yes, she loves scoring, she loves attacking, she loves being the person, but she also loves to set people up and put them in the best position possible.
“In soccer, individual play gets the most notoriety, but she’s one of those people that doesn’t want to let the team down. I think that’s a unique trait about her.”
There is a uniqueness about high school sports that appeals to Mrowicki, which is why she worked so hard to return.
“It’s a lot of fun,” she said. “It’s just a lot less pressure to be able to play for fun and play for your school.”
However far the Huskies go this season will depend a lot on Mrowicki, who has some advice for athletes dealing with serious injuries.
“Have a clear mind of exactly what you want and be driven and let absolutely nothing stop you,” she said. “There’s going to be hard days. There’s going to be days where you really don’t think that things are going to get better. But if you put your mind to it, you can come back better than you were before. That’s what I had in my mind at the beginning of everything.”
Mrowicki is better than ever, but even if she wasn’t, she is thrilled just to be playing.
“The big thing for me, as I always say, is I get to,” she said. “Like I get to be able to play again.
“There’s so many different things that I’ve gotten to do that you’re going to take for granted one day. So be able to have fun with it.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
