Kelly Bauer is always happy to represent her school.
Her family has been doing it for years.
Bauer is a senior on the Little Flower High School basketball team. Her grandmother went to the school, her mom went to the school, her aunts went there and her older sister went there.
That’s why whenever she has a chance to talk about how much she loves the school, she’s willing to do it. Whether it’s about sports or just the school, she’s ready to sing its praises.
“I really love it,” said Bauer, who is a member of the school’s ambassador team as well as a member of student government and the treasurer of the community service corps. “It’s a great place. I like being an ambassador because you talk to kids about coming here. It’s been great for me, so I like telling people about it.”
Bauer is very involved in the school, and shows great leadership in everything she does. And now she’s being one of the five leaders of the Sentinels basketball team in what should be a fun year for the school.
Last year, the Sentinels struggled when most of the team was made up of underclassmen. That didn’t help, but the real challenge was the competition. The Catholic League was full of top-notch teams and while the Sentinels have great athletes, most are two- or three-sport athletes.
This year will be different. Not only are the Sentinels improved, but the Catholic League reorganized to Red and Blue divisions, much like it has in football.
Under the new alignment, Little Flower will battle it out with Hallahan, Lansdale Catholic, St. Hubert, McDevitt and Conwell-Egan.
The new schedule should help Little Flower be more competitive, but Bauer is just excited to get on the floor with her teammates.
“I think we’ll be able to do pretty well,” said Bauer, who will play forward. “We have a lot of seniors, three starters. There are five of us, and we’re pretty happy to have this year. It’s nice that we’re playing teams more like us. It’s hard when you’re playing really good teams, but we had fun last year, too. We just go out and do our best.”
That’s why Bauer is such an important member of the team.
Sure, she’s one of the better players. She averages about seven points per game and does all of the dirty work, like playing defense and working hard under the basket to pull down rebounds, but her greatest asset on the floor might be her ability to lead.
That will come in handy this year because while Little Flower has a lot of experience, it also has some players who are still learning the game and she’ll be helping out with that.
“I’ve always tried to be someone everyone can come to, to ask questions or help them with anything,” Bauer said. “If a freshman needs help with the plays or someone needs anything, like if someone needs help fixing a shot, I’ll try to help them.
“In the games, I do a little bit of everything. I try to do whatever we need. We have a lot of players who do that. We all just try to help the team win.”
While Little Flower has a long way to go this year before it wins a Catholic League championship in basketball, Bauer knows exactly what it takes to bring home a championship. During the fall, in just her second year playing the sport, she helped the Sentinels win the Catholic League golf championship. It was a sport she picked up just for fun, and it became even better when the team won the championship.
“A few of us decided to play last year because they needed golfers,” Bauer said. “It was great to win. There were only two other teams, but it was good to win. I was OK. I like golf, but my real sport is basketball. That’s the one I’ve been playing my whole life and it’s the one I like the best.”
While basketball is a huge part of her past, having played it throughout high school and during her days at Resurrection, she believes this is her final year of playing.
Next year she’ll go to college, possibly Bucks County Community College, and the goal is to eventually go to Jefferson University, where she’ll study to become an ultrasound technician.
“My mom’s friend does it, and it’s a good job because you’re helping people get better,” Bauer said. “You go for four years, but I’m thinking because it’s cheaper I might go to community college for two years and then go to Jefferson. That’s the only school that really has it. Not a lot of schools offer it.”
Until then, she’ll stay busy at Little Flower, or at work, where she helps do catering at the Knowlton Mansion.
“I’m looking forward to the rest of my senior year,” said Bauer, who enjoys spending time watching her brother Shane play soccer and basketball. “I think we can have a good season. We’re working really hard. We play good teams, but we’ll try. We’ll do our best.”
