Basketball
Notre Dame girls basketball freshman and state finals hero earns offer from Bradley
PEORIA — Emy Wardle‘s freshman season at Peoria Notre Dame High School already included a legendary game-winning shot to deliver an IHSA Class 2A state basketball championship, and a third-place run playing for the Irish soccer team.
On Saturday she added another big moment: Collecting a NCAA Division-I basketball offer. Wardle announced she’s received an offer from her hometown school Bradley University.
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“After a great conversation with (Bradley women’s team head coach Kate Popovec-Goss), I am grateful to receive an offer to play basketball at Bradley University!” Wardle wrote on social media.
Wardle is an aspiring point guard with size, at 5-foot-10. She says Bradley women’s team head coach Kate Popovec-Goss watched all of her games at a highly-regarded varsity team showcase this week in Batavia.
“At the end she said she’d like to offer me,” Wardle said. “I’ve had phone calls, conversations with schools. But that first offer is the best feeling. Obviously, Bradley I know all about.”
She is the daughter of Bradley men’s basketball head coach Brian Wardle, and her sister, Mya, just finished her high school career at Notre Dame and will play for Eastern Kentucky next season.
“You definitely know a lot more at a young age as a coach’s kid,” Emy Wardle said. “So I think definitely, having him as my dad is an advantage. My sister’s advice on recruiting helped, too, she told me to be honest with the schools the whole way out.”
Wardle has a very high basketball IQ and, as evidenced by her walk-off winner in the state championship game, she has intangibles like clutch factor and calmness on the biggest stages. She has three more years to develop at the prep level, and collect D-I offers.
“I told my mom (Lecia, a former Div-I soccer player) if we had won state for both basketball and soccer this season I might just retire from high school sports,” Wardle joked. “And to play both basketball and soccer with Mya was just great.
“But this offer from Bradley, this is a great first start for me.”
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
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