Meet the SJ-R's Large School Girls Basketball Player of the Year: Lincoln's Kloe Froebe

Oftentimes, a player of the year award is fraught with debate and indecision. But every now and then, a player has a season-long performance that makes it a no-doubter.

Lincoln’s Kloe Froebe had such a season. While most high school players don’t reach the 1,000-point mark in a career, Froebe had more than that in a season. At 5-foot-9, she averaged 7.8 rebounds per game and the Railsplitters had overcome a size disadvantage time and time again until the Class 3A state championship game. She’s also an incredible and unselfish passer.

Quite frankly, Froebe is the best player on the best team in The State Journal-Register's coverage area and Lincoln was the second-best team in the 145-school Class 3A field. Froebe is The State Journal-Register's Large School Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

“Kloe just had a phenomenal season,” Lincoln coach Taylor Rohrer said. “Every night she stepped on the floor, she was just the best player she could be. For a 17-year-old kid to be able to step on the floor every single night and play the way she plays is really a tribute to the work she puts in and how much she loves this game and how much she wanted our team to succeed.”

There’s even been discussion whether or not the junior guard could win the Ms. Basketball of Illinois award — handed out to the state’s player of the year. Just being a part of that discussion has been incredible, Froebe said.

“It is really cool,” she said. “I know there are some great players all throughout Illinois and to have people saying I’m even a candidate and the talk of even being compared to these other players is just really cool.”

What a season

In 37 games, Froebe scored 1,045 points with a 53.6% field goal percentage. She averaged 28.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 5.6 steals per game. She was 67-for-192 behind the 3-point line (34.9%) and was 224-for-316 at the foul line (70.9%). She had more than three assists for every turnover committed and more than half of her rebounds came on the offensive end (151 out of 290).

“I think she gets a lot of garbage points — and I mean that as a complete compliment,” Rochester coach J.R. Boudouris said. “We talk about getting garbage — or hustle points ourselves … that putback on offense, or getting out in transition and getting a cheap basket that way, or getting a deflection off the press and grabbing the ball and laying it in.

“All those hustle points she accumulates on top of being a really skilled player, those are just killer.”

Rohrer said Froebe’s instinct for the game is unparalleled.

“One thing with rebounding is you have to be able to read the ball and she reads the ball and it’s a hard thing to teach,” Rohrer said. “She reads the ball really well coming off any shot and she’s able to get in position.

“She reads the opponent really well and she knows her teammates, which I think is such a valuable thing.”

Basketball lifer

Froebe said she’s gotten that awareness from being immersed in basketball for her whole life.

“My dad (Kent Froebe) was the varsity coach at Morrisonville when I was born so I kind of went right in the gym,” Froebe said. “A few weeks after I was born, I was already in the gym. I was basically born in the gym.”

Froebe’s mom, Kari Froebe, has also been a longtime coach. She’s guided Lincoln West Lincoln-Broadwell to eight Illinois Elementary School Association state championships since 2014 (five in seventh grade and three more in eighth grade).

Froebe also credits her older sister, Kaelyn Froebe, with helping change the culture of Lincoln girls basketball. Before Kaelyn entered high school, the Railsplitters won 21 total games in the previous seven seasons. Kaelyn’s team was an immediate improvement her freshman year with 17 wins. The next season, Lincoln won 22 games and its first regional title since 2006 and advanced all the way to the Class 3A supersectionals.

Now crowds flock to see girls games at Lincoln’s Roy S. Anderson Gymnasium as much as the longtime successful boys program.

“They definitely set the standards high and they brought the community into watching women’s sports in Lincoln — especially women’s basketball,” Froebe said of her older sister’s group. “They lit the fire and we just want to keep pouring the gas on, keeping it ignited and the fire blazing so the community continues to support and they continue to come to the women’s games.

“(Kaelyn) really was one of the main people that I admired. I looked up to everything she did. Everything that she did right, everything that she did wrong, I’ve always been analyzing everything.

“I don’t think she realizes that — I never openly told her that — but everything that she did I was watching.”

Leaving a legacy

If Froebe stopped playing basketball today, she’s also laid down quite the legacy. In one-school towns, players of a certain caliber become legends. Allison Curtin is still admired in Taylorville 25 years after she led the Tornadoes to their only state appearance. Molly McDowell will also have the same status in Nokomis for her team’s back-to-back Class A state titles in 1998 and 1999. Even in Springfield, Zahna Medley will always be remembered for leading Springfield High to four consecutive state tournament appearances.

But those players also had something else in common: the sheer ability to dominate a game while making it look easy at the same time.

“It’s awesome to have a player like that come up, join your program and never take a day off,” Rohrer said of Froebe. “She always wants to continue to improve — not just on the floor but off the floor too, she just does all the right things.

“To have a player like her is such a blessing. It’s been the most exciting years of coaching for me. We have a great bond and I’m excited that I get another year with her.”

Rochester opened and ended its season against Lincoln. The Railers (36-1) handed the 27-8 Rockets a quarter of their losses. Boudouris said its matchups against teams like that and players like Froebe that excites him the most during the preparation due to the challenge.

“No. 1, I think she’s a super-unselfish player,” Boudouris said of Froebe. “That makes it more difficult too because she’s just as apt to find a teammate for an open kick-out 3 as she is to get to the rim. And then along that same note, they’re so good as a team and they play so well together, that it makes it difficult to guard her because they have so many weapons.

“I think she’s a very complete player now: she’s got the mid-range, she can get to the rim, she can shoot the 3. She’s a good defender at the point of the press and in their zone. She’s got great instinct.

“I love matchups like that. That’s where as a coach, you can really put your thinking cap on.”

Froebe scored 45 points in a 76-56 win over Deerfield in the Class 3A state semifinals. Doing that on a game broadcast on TV throughout the state was an incredible experience, Froebe said.

“It’s been slowly settling in the more I think about it,” Froebe said. “In the moment, it didn’t really feel like a huge deal. When we were out on that floor, you were just thinking about winning that game.

“It’s weird to look back. I remember sitting in a restaurant watching the state games before and thinking that’s so cool, those girls are on the TV and I’m sitting at a restaurant watching them play. It’s really cool thinking how there might be a little girl or someone younger than us that was sitting at a restaurant or sitting at home or sitting in the stands watching the game and aspiring to be in that position that I once was and my teammates once were.”

Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Lincoln's Kloe Froebe is the SJ-R Large School Girls Basketball Player of the Year