PEQUANNOCK _ Although Mountain Lakes' Katie Reese hasn't taken a college class yet, she received a good dose of higher education over the last year or so.
Reese gleaned much from the recruiting process, learning how to deal with coaches and figuring out how to handle all that came her way. She found it all "overwhelming" but, now that it's done, feels she made the right decision.
On Monday, Nov. 14, Reese could finally breathe easily, knowing the ordeal, some of it unpleasant, was behind her. The senior guard put pen to paper and signed a letter of intent to play basketball and continue her education at Division 1 Manhattan College.
"I'm really happy," Reese, whose signing ceremony was at the Boys & Girls Club of Pequannock. "I'm mostly happy I took the time and waited. The first offer I had came sophomore year. I didn't do it right away. In September and October, people pressured me about it but I wanted to make sure."
Reese, who will play for former Morris Catholic High School coach John Olenowski, is certain she made the correct decision because she devoted a good deal and time of effort. She went to practices. She got to the know the coaches and players.
"I'm going to be spending lots of time with them," she said. "It's important that I feel that I fit in and that I like the school and everything about it."
Through it all, Reese said she actually grew and matured.
"When coaches kept asking me to commit, I put them off. I told them 'If you like me now, I hope you'll like me in more than a week,'" Reese recalled. "I was honest and up front and I wanted them to be the same."
In Reese, Olenowski gets a backcourt standout. Reese averaged 15.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists as a junior. She became the seventh girls player to attain 1,000 points and the first to accomplish the feat as a junior. She reached the milestone with a 3-pointer in a game against Pingry last February.
"I am very excited and happy for Katie," Lakers coach Mike Killingsworth said. "It has been her dream to play Division 1 basketball in college. She has worked extremely hard to achieve this goal by spending countless hours in the gym when no one else was around. I am also pleased that Coach Olenowski is recruiting and signing basketball players from Morris County."
There was a reason Reese did her signing at the Boys & Girls Club of Pequannock. The club was where her AAU practices were held in fifth and sixth grade. Those sessions were conducted in part by Mark Kosmack, who passed away in December of 2006 after battling cancer. Kosmack, Reese said, had a great impact on her.
"Mr. Kosmack gave me an opportunity when other people wouldn't," she said. "He believed in me when I didn't. Hands down, I was the worst player there but he saw something in me and it motivated me.
"Because of Coach Kosmack, I worked twice as hard because he kept me on the team. He made me love the game and I never gave up."
Reese will major in kinesiology and minor in business at Manhattan. Joining her there will be Shayna Ericksen of West Morris.
"Shayna and I are best friends," Reese said. "We've played together since seventh grade on the North Stars. I can't believe we ended up at the same college. It's kind of funny."
