Connection to JWCC coaching staff makes for logical transition for Panthers’ Peters

CAMP POINT, Ill. — It was a no-brainer for Karly Peters.

The same goes for Ali Schwagmeyer-Belger.

When Schwagmeyer-Belger was hired as the head coach of the John Wood Community College women’s basketball team in June, Peters’ decision on where to play college basketball became much easier.

“I knew right when she got the job that I wanted to play there,” Peters said.

And Schwagmeyer-Belger knew exactly who to contact.

“When I got this job, (Peters) was the first person I brought on an official visit,” Schwagmeyer-Belger said. “She was my first recruit, and she was the first one to commit.”

Peters, a senior guard who leads Central-Southeastern into the State Farm Holiday Classic this week, has been training since the seventh grade with Schwagmeyer-Belger and her husband, Courtney Belger, who is also an assistant coach at John Wood. During Peters’ freshman and sophomore years, she also played for the 25 Eight Mentality AAU team coached by the couple.

The roots of the connection between Peters and Schwagmeyer-Belger extend even deeper. Schwagmeyer-Belger graduated from Camp Point Central in 2008 and played for Matt Long, who still coaches the CSE girls team.

“It’s really cool,” Peters said.

Prior to Schwagmeyer-Belger’s freshman season, the Panthers had only won four regional championships in their history, including back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2004. The Panthers won a regional in each of Schwagmeyer-Belger’s four seasons and reached the Class A Sweet 16 in 2007.

Schwagmeyer-Belger amassed 974 rebounds and 500 steals in her CSE career, both of which are still program records. She was a two-time all-state selection, and her 1,950 career points were a program record until Laney Lantz surpassed that mark during the 2018-19 season.

“I’ve always been proud of Ali and all of her family,” Long said. “It’s going to be nice to see Karly continue her career with somebody who I feel was one of the cornerstones of building our program, if she wasn’t the cornerstone. That’s going to be special.”

The offseason work Peters and other Panthers players like Lauren Miller and Lexi Niekamp have done with “Mr. and Mrs. 25 Eight” — as Belger and Schwagmeyer-Belger are known — has taken some of the stress out of Long’s job.

“As a high school coach, you just don’t have time to get around in the summer to 20 individuals without having a life,” Long said. “That’s their livelihood, that’s what they do for their career, and it’s been nice to have (Schwagmeyer-Belger) back home. I’ve always given her a lot of credit for the success of our program. She’s really responsible, along with a lot of other people, for the success we’ve had here since she graduated.”

Peters enjoys the intense summer workouts.

“It’s great to work with them,” Peters said. “They give it their all when they’re here. The intensity of the workout is so high. It just makes improvement easier to accomplish. It’s just so fun to be with them.”

Schwagmeyer-Belger said Peters’ attitude toward the workouts makes all the difference.

“Karly is a one of a kind,” Schwagmeyer-Belger said. “She does everything she’s asked to do, but she doesn’t just do it, she does it with intentionality. Not only does she do it, but she knows why she does it, and I think that’s what sets her apart.”

That attitude even prompted Belger and Schwagmeyer-Belger to name a drill after Peters.

“We have this drill where you have to go up for a layup and touch a pad then put it in after that,” Peters said.

When Belger introduced the drill to the AAU team, he said most of the players were hesitant about their ability to do it correctly.

Not Peters, though.

“Karly’s so athletic, when we first did it at practice, everybody was like, ‘What is this? I can’t do it,’ and Karly’s just touching the pad on one side and finishing on the other side,” Belger said. “She’s like, ‘This is fun.’”

Schwagmeyer-Belger could not help but marvel at Peters’ confidence.

“Everybody was like, ‘What? How are we going to do this? How can we touch the pad in mid-air and make a reverse layup? There’s no way,’” Schwagmeyer-Belger said. “Karly Peters steps up, first time, touches the pad in the air, reverse layup, and everybody’s like, ‘What?! What is this?!’ So we just called it the ‘Karly drill’ from there.”

That confidence rubbed off on the rest of the team.

“The crazy thing is we continued to do it for 10 minutes, and everybody was able to do it after they saw Karly do it,” Schwagmeyer-Belger said.

Both Peters’ work ethic and personality are infectious.

“I’ve never met a player who didn’t like Karly,” Belger said. “It’s always like, ‘Oh Karly’s coming? I’m coming, too.’ ‘I want to hang out with Karly.’ ‘OK, we can be partners?’ Everybody believes in Karly. Everybody loves her.”

Peters has even done some of Belger and Schwagmeyer-Belger’s recruiting for them.

“When we’re recruiting players to come to John Wood, she’s talking to them, connecting with them early so they feel like it’s a family,” Belger said. “She’s always ready to go the extra mile. She comes up here and watches our games. The girls know her. They’re like, ‘I can’t wait to play with you next year,’ and she’s not even on the team yet.”

Peters’ talent is just a bonus.

“Her being a great player is just icing on the cake,” Schwagmeyer-Belger said.

Peters is averaging 9.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 3.5 steals in her final season for CSE, which is currently receiving votes in the Associated Press Class 2A state rankings.

“She’s playing well right now,” Long said. “Her shot is starting to look better. She struggled earlier in the year, which I thought hurt her mentally throughout different parts of the game, but she’s started to shoot the ball a little better, and I think the better she starts shooting it, the better a ballplayer you’re going to see on both ends of the floor.”

While Peters’ scoring average is down from 11.9 points per game last season, she has eclipsed that number in three straight games, including a 21-point performance in a 64-41 victory over Winchester West Central on Dec. 16.

“I had a coach from up north ask me, ‘What’s going on with Karly Peters? She’s only averaging nine points,’” Long said. “But I said, ‘Yeah, but isn’t it nice to know that on any given night she can go out there and get you 25?’”

Just like Schwagmeyer-Belger did, Peters makes her mark on the defensive end. Long said while Schwagmeyer-Belger was more physical and a better on-ball defender than Peters is, Peters’ instincts are off the charts.

“One of my assistants and I were talking about that a week ago, about an ‘all-instincts’ team, and Karly would be a front-runner to be a team captain on that team,” Long said. “We’ve had some great defenders over the years, great on-ball defenders. Karly’s not necessarily a great on-ball defender, but she gets a lot of her touches and steals off the ball because she has good instincts on where the ball is going to be thrown to. She gets up the line and goes and challenges that pass.”

It’s something Schwagmeyer-Belger is anxious to see in person every day.

“I can’t wait to coach her, Courtney can’t wait to coach her, and we can’t wait for the people of our community to see her here at John Wood,” Schwagmeyer-Belger said. “I think it’s going to be something really special.”

Peters cannot wait, either.

“I’ve thought about it a lot,” Peters said. “I’m so excited. Just to be with Ali and Courtney is going to be great, and I know they’ve already built a great team there and they’ve already improved a lot. You can see that on the court.”