Oregon State women’s basketball coach Scott Rueck has a fairly good idea at this point the response he’ll get when he calls future Beavers guard Greta Kampschroeder.
The Naperville North senior has either just finished a workout or is heading to one. If Kampschroeder doesn’t answer? She’s probably lifting or playing pickup or just getting up shots in the gym by herself.
“Clearly, she wants to be great,” Rueck said. “She has that desire. I’d call her, and it’s, ‘Coach, I’m just getting back from a workout,’ in the morning. Or she’d say, ‘Hey, I’ll call you back. I’m playing open gym,’ and she’s calling me here at 11 p.m. We’ve had an 11 p.m. Pacific phone call before after a workout.
“She’s just so committed to the game and so committed to her dreams. That’s what every coach is looking for. She’s a coach’s dream. I know that, and she hasn’t even been here yet.”
Kampschroeder put that work ethic to good use. The 6-foot-1 guard was a Division I prospect before she even made it to high school, a starter from day one at Naperville North and capped her career as The News-Gazette All-State Player of the Year after averaging 17.8 points, 10.1 rebounds, three steals and three assists for the 12-1 Huskies in 2021.
“She’s obviously been the best player I’ve coached in my time,” said Naperville North coach Erin Colletti, who coached Kampschroeder the past two seasons and knew her from club basketball before that.
“I saw her as a camper even as a seventh-grader,” Colletti continued. “She was head and shoulders above every player in the gym. We knew she was going to be a special talent. … She was a player as a seventh grader going between her legs, behind the back with a step-back jumper. I’m like, ‘Who is that?’”
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That Kampschroeder took to basketball wasn’t exactly a surprise. The sport runs in her family. Her mom, Amy, was an all-state basketball player at Naperville North before playing at Valparaiso. Her dad, Brad, also played at Naperville North before walking on at Kansas.
Not that basketball was her first love. It took a little time for Greta to embrace the game as fully as she has now.
“She originally was a soccer player and a pretty good soccer player on a competitive team,” Amy said. “I think the first time we had her play basketball she hated it. We were like, ‘Oh, OK. You’re kind of tall, but OK.’ I think my dad gave me the advice just give it time because he had raised four kids and all of us were athletes and had watched how kids change over time.”
Greta eventually gravitated back to basketball by fourth grade, playing both that and soccer on travel teams. The real shift came a year later when her dad enrolled her in the M14 Hoops Academy in Aurora. The outside training helped cement her passion for the game.
“At the time, in fourth and fifth grade, I was by far the tallest in my grade,” Greta said. “I think he knew, ‘She’s not going to be the tallest for long. If she wants to be good, she has to develop her guard skills.’ I started to enjoy that hard work and commitment. Since I enjoyed it, I kept with it.”
Greta’s parents helped coach her through her first few dedicated years. It’s mostly just rebounding help these days from Amy and Brad for their daughter.
“I retired to rebounder quite a while ago,” Amy said. “I’m always willing to put on a pair of shoes and try to show off rebounding. That’s about it.”
“I think I played my dad one-on-one two summers ago and beat him, and he decided he’s not going to play me one-on-one again,” Greta chipped in.
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Still, it wasn’t a bad thing to have a pair of former Division I athletes at her disposal in her household.
“My dad was a post player,” Greta said. “He kind of taught me everything I needed to know from that standpoint — all the moves on the block, the hook shot. All those little things I have in my bag, those are from my dad, but my mom was more of a shooting coach for me. Also, just from being a women’s basketball player, she has a different perspective on the game, and that helped me a lot. She was able to coach me more from that standpoint.”
Kampschroeder dropped soccer to focus solely on basketball around seventh grade, avoiding some of the rigors of playing on travel teams for both. She also took more control of her development on the court by the time she reached high school.
“We’ve been relatively hands off for a while, and she’s just continued to work at her craft,” Amy said. “She goes and trains with different trainers and plays pick-up. She’s always kind of surprising us.
“I think she’s had really good help along the way — people who could paint a picture for where she could go and how to get there. She’s learned from a lot of different coaches and trainers. She’s driven. She’s disciplined. She does those things on her own. She lays out a schedule every day of what she’s going to do. All through COVID, she was in the basement training — lifting weights, doing core work and ball handling. She’s figured out what it takes, and she’s willing to put in the work.”
“There’s a lot of unseen hours in the gym that kids like her put in to get where they are,” Brad added. “I think some people think she’s just naturally gifted — and she does have some talents — but she puts in a lot of hours in the gym and the weight room. She works on her own. As a parent, there’s a lot of miles in the car and rebounding for her, but she’s the one putting in the hard work.”
★ ★ ★
What set Greta apart — what elevated her to McDonald’s All-American status and a top-25 prospect nationally bound for one of the top college programs in the country — is the work she’s done off the basketball court. A bad ankle sprain in middle school got her interested in the rehab process and sports performance.
The last four years Greta has made three-times-a-week visits to a strength training facility that focuses on speed, agility, strength and injury prevention.
“My game just escalated to a different level,” Greta said. “My athleticism improved, and, knock on wood, I haven’t had any major injuries since the high ankle sprain in sixth grade. It’s super important.”
★ ★ ★
It certainly caught Rueck’s attention. The Oregon State coach got a chance to really dive into Kampschroeder’s game the summer before her junior year at Naperville North. What he saw — a skilled, physical wing that played with intensity and could be a three-level scorer — fit exactly what he wanted.
Rueck considers Kampschroeder “way ahead” in terms of being physically ready for college basketball. Even in the Pac-12, which just had two teams square off for the NCAA championship.
“She’s got a lot of versatility because of that physicality,” Rueck said. “She has a college-ready body already. My expectations for Greta are going to be high because I know her mindset, I know her maturity level, I know her skill set. She’ll have every opportunity to earn immediate time from the beginning.”
Greta will head to Corvallis, Ore., as a McDonald’s All-American. The only player from Illinois selected this year and the Beavers’ third in three years. And also the culmination of a longtime dream.
“You never know if you’re going to get it because it’s someone’s opinion,” Greta said. “You don’t know if someone thinks you’re good enough to be on that list. To see my name on that list, I think I started crying. I was crying, but I was laughing at the same time. I was so overwhelmed. It’s weird when you think about something for so long and that moment finally comes.”
Honor Roll: The News-Gazette All-State girls’ basketball Players of the Year
YEAR ATHLETE SCHOOL
2021 Greta Kampshroeder Naperville North
2020 Angela Dugalic Maine West
2019 Anaya Peoples Schlarman
2018 Brea Beal Rock Island
2017 Brea Beal Rock Island
2016 Kathleen Doyle Benet Academy
2015 Haley Gorecki Fremd
2014 Tyra Buss Mount Carmel
2013 Tyra Buss Mount Carmel
2012 Jewell Loyd Niles West
2011 Morgan Tuck Bolingbrook
2010 Tricia Liston Fenwick
2009 Adrieene GodBold Chicago Marshall
2008 Sarah Boothe Warren
2007 Brittany Johnson Olney East Richland
2006 Brittany Johnson Olney East Richland
2005 Lindsay Schrader Bartlett
2004 Candace Parker Naperville Central
2003 Candace Parker Naperville Central
2002 Johanna Solverson Lake Zurich
2001 Cappie Pondexter Chicago Marshall
2000 Aminata Yanni Harlem
1999 Molly McDowell Nokomis
1998 Allison Curtin Taylorville
1997 Amanda Levens Belvidere
1996 Tauja Catchings Stevenson
1995 Tamika Catchings Stevenson
1994 Dominique Canty Whitney Young
1993 Kim Williams Chicago Marshall
1992 Kim Williams Chicago Marshall
1991 Becky Clayton Sullivan
Megan Lucid Mother McAuley
1990 E.C. Hill Whitney Young
1989 Toni Foster Chicago Marshall
1988 Yolanda Griffith Carver
1987 Nancy Kennedy Maine West
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