Janisha “Pooh” Gearlds, a 5-foot-6 point guard at powerhouse Bolingbrook (Ill.) High School, committed to the Billikens on Friday night and gives SLU coach Shimmy Gray-Miller a feisty floor leader to go with her other four commitments.
“I just felt like it was the right time,” Gearlds said. “It had been a while.”
Gearlds said she picked Saint Louis over Southern Illinois in part because of the Billikens coaching staff and the academic programs at the school.
As for that nickname …
“I was a chubby baby,” Gearlds said. “I had chubby cheeks like Winnie the Pooh.”
Gearlds’ Bolingbrook Raiders defeated Belleville Althoff in the 2006 Illinois Class AA championship game, 45-34. Gearlds, then a sophomore, had six points, nine rebounds and three assists in that game and averaged 11.4 points per game for the season.
Two starters from that Althoff team — Theresa Lisch and Alisha Goodwin — will be teammates with Gearlds next season. Lisch, who scored a game-high 24 points in that game, is currently a sophomore at SLU. Goodwin, who had four points in the game, is a senior at Althoff and has committed to SLU.
“I remember a lot about (Lisch),” Gearlds said. “She scored 20 points against us.”
Lisch, the Billikens’ leading scorer a year ago as a freshman, was also another reason Gearlds considered playing for the Billikens.
“I thought about that,” Gearlds said. “I was like yeah, I’d like to play with her.”
Gearlds helped Bolingbrook get back to the Class AA championship game last season, but the Raiders were defeated by Oak Park Fenwick, 35-27.
She has visited the campus four times, including an official visit around Labor Day, and hit it off with Gray-Miller, the third-year SLU coach.
“My first time on campus was the first time meeting her,” Gearlds said. “She was real open and outgoing. She lets you know the truth.”
The Billikens already had commitments from four players for the 2008-09 season: Goodwin, a 5-10 guard from Belleville (Ill.) Althoff, 6-0 forward Devonna Smith from Kirkwood (Mo.), 6-1 forward India Warfield from Chaminade-Julienne School in Dayton and 6-2 center Kaelin Reid from Taft High School in Cincinnati.
Gray-Miller recently received her first commitment from the class of 2009 when 5-5 shooting guard Ashley Hanlen from St. Joseph’s Academy in St. Louis committed to the Billikens over Indiana State and interest from others.
“When I went down to SLU, I fell in love with the coaching staff and fell in love with the girls there,” Hanlen said. “I also wanted to stay close to home.”
The Hanlens live in Shrewsbury, about a 10-minute drive from SLU’s midtown campus. So mother Colleen was able to raid the campus bookstore before it closed on Wednesday, returning with all sorts of Billiken gear.
Hanlen’s older brother, Drew, is one of the top players in the St. Louis area and committed to Belmont last month.
Ashley Hanlen averaged 7.5 points per game and made 36 3-pointers as a sophomore when St. Joe’s went 20-9 and won a district championship. She averaged 3.3 points per game as a freshman, when the Angels went 24-6.
Janisha Gearlds Profile
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