Whetts & Team No. 1

By Tom Dillard

“A player like this only comes around once in a coach’s career. I’m just afraid that mine came in the first five years of my career,” said Neumann Women’s Basketball Head Coach Frank Farnese when speaking about senior forward Brittany Whetts.

Whetts, who will be graduating this year with a degree in International Business, will ultimately go down as one of the greatest basketball players, male or female, in Neumann history. As a senior at John Bartram High School in Philadelphia, Pa, Coach Farnese saw Whetts play and wondered how he could get her at Neumann. “I looked at her schedule and said I’m going to get to as many games as possible and hope she knows that I’m interested,” said Farnese at the Women’s Basketball Banquet.

When Farnese recollected on the attempts to recruit Whetts, he remembered a time when he told her that if she came to Neumann, she would wind up being the all-time leading scorer in school history. Whetts came in as a freshman in 2006-2007 and C-Frank, as he is often called by his players, could never have asked for more from a freshman. She wound up starting in all but one game and averaged a whopping 17.0 points per game en route to a Pennsylvania Athletic Conference (PAC) Rookie of the Year Award, which was only the start of the many accolades that Whetts would receive.

During her freshman year, Whetts scored a career high 42 points aganist FDU-Florham. In addition to the accolades already mentioned, Whetts was recognized as PAC player of the week and month numerous times and the All-PAC Second Team. That year, she ranked 7th in the conference in scoring with 409 points and ranked 4th in rebounding with 235 rebounds. Whetts was also honored by her team as the team’s Offensive Player of the Year Award and Co-MVP.

Whetts’ sophomore year was nothing different from the previous one, racking up more accolades and climbing closer to several milestones. The team was able to accumulate a record of 15 wins and 11 losses with a first round exit at Misericordia University. The season included a six game winning streak which was preceded by a three game losing streak. Whetts’ season’s 288 points got her closer to the collegiate milestone of 1,000 points, while averaging 11.5 points per game. In addition to that, she grabbed 224 rebounds and averaged 9.0 per game while collecting 26 blocks and 27 steals.

During Whetts’ junior season, she achieved two career milestones. During the season, the Neumann Knights compiled a record of 18 wins and 10 losses including a loss in the semifinals of the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) playoffs at Gwynedd Mercy College. On January 22, 2009 at Rosemont, Whetts hit a jumper for her 1,000th point of her career. In addition to her 1,000 point milestone, Whetts also scored 521 points on the season averaging 18.6 points per game. She grabbed 353 rebounds and averaged 12.6 per contest.

Whetts standing tall on the court

The second milestone that Whetts finally achieved was being recognized as the CSAC Player of the Year after the conference went through realignment. Whetts was happy with this achievement but was not satisfied with the season. Whetts’ senior season was a special one. “I felt like we were going to win the championship in August, like the moment we all got here,” said Whetts when asked about winning the championship on March 17 while on Neumann Radio’s Around the Dorm.

This year was a season of challenging games and even more than that, a season of “firsts.” Neumann University opened the new Mirenda Center for Sport, Spirituality, and Character Development in October at Neumann’s Homecoming. Coach Farnese says that he will always remember the day at Homecoming when the building was opened because of a conversation with Mr. Tony Mirenda. “Day one, Tony Mirenda came up to me and said ‘Coach you have an opportunity here to be the first women’s program to ever win in the new building and in the history of the school being in the NCAA tournament now,”’ recalled Farnese. ‘“I want to see one of those banners hanging in here.’ When I saw him after our championship game, I reminded him about that day and he remembered it.”

The championship won this year by the women’s basketball team can be chalked up as another first in school history. The season started off with a loss in the home opener to Richard Stockton College, which was a devastating loss to open the new building. After that loss, they went 3-2 before going into conference play. In conference, the team went 12-2 with their first loss coming at Marywood University on February 1. Despite a home loss to Cabrini to close the regular season, home court throughout the playoffs had been secured the game before against Immaculata.

Throughout the season, Neumann played three teams that were nationally ranked at some point in the season including Widener, Moravian, and Gettysburg. Another staple of the team this year which Whetts and teammates Krista DiRomualdo and Bethany Humenik defended on Around the Dorm, was the team’s performance of “the Cha-Cha Slide.” “We went to Centenary and they had it on their warm-up tape, and they were kind of dead on the other end and we were trying to find a way to wake up,” said Whetts. “So, we all started doing the cha-cha slide and we went on to win by two. So, it was a good thing.”

During the season, Whetts went on to break two records. On January 30, Whetts broke the women’s all-time scoring record previously held by Kaleena Simmons. In the same game, she grabbed her 1,000th career rebound, something done by very few in Neumann history. On February 28, Whetts scored an early bucket to pass Tim McKee as the all-time leading scorer in Neumann history with 1,817 points.

At the finish of the season, Whetts received numerous accolades including another CSAC Player of the Year Award. At the team’s end of the season banquet, Athletic Director Chuck Sack announced that Neumann will be retiring the number “15” jersey of Whetts, an accolade held by only two other players in school history, Colette Duggan and Brendan P. Kelly. At this time, Whetts and her family are exploring options for her professional basketball career.