The upstart Loyola Chicago Ramblers have captured the hearts of college basketball fans around the country with their Final Four run to San Antonio and former Gilbert Christian School star Cameron Satterwhite is living every part of the wild ride.
“Our team is very, very close,” the Ramblers sophomore guard said to Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat in a phone interview Monday. “We’re a lot of guys with a chip on our shoulder. Everyone has their own story on how they got [to Loyola]…in our locker room, I could see us making this run.”
It wasn’t a dream, we are headed to the Final Four!#OnwardLU #FinalFour #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/O6vggdqJve
— Loyola Basketball (@RamblersMBB) March 25, 2018
Satterwhite’s journey to “The Windy City” is unique in its own sense. Following a stellar prep career with the Knights he signed with the University of Colorado despite missing his entire senior season of high school with a torn ACL.
With the help of his AAU coach John Ortega, Satterwhite eventually landed at Loyola and now finds himself on college basketball’s biggest stage in The Alamo City.
“I know that we put in a lot of work to be here and we’re here for a reason,” he explained. “When you’ve got guys who believe, things like this can happen.”
One of those believers is Sister Jean Delores Schmidt, the 98 year-old team chaplain and Ramblers’ biggest supporter who has burst on to the national spotlight during Loyola’s nail-biting tournament run.
“I met Sister Jean on my visit,” Satterwhite recalled. “She’s the biggest fan. She’s just as happy that we’re doing so well as we are. We get a scouting report from her every game. We get an e-mail. She tells us the teams’ best players, who to watch out for. ‘Watch number four. He likes to drive right. He’s very athletic. Also, you need to key an eye on #10. He really makes them go.'”
Satterwhite isn’t the only GCS connection who will be playing in San Antonio. Fellow PowerHouse Basketball club teammate Mitch Lightfoot, a sophomore forward at Kansas, is preparing for the Jayhawks’ showdown against top-seed Villanova.
“I talk to Mitch every day since we left high school,” Satterwhite said of his close friend. “We keep in contact.”
State Forty Eight will certainly be well-represented this weekend.
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Eric Sorenson
A Valley native, Eric has had a passion for the Arizona sports scene since an early age. He has covered some of the biggest events including Super Bowls, national championships and the NBA and MLB playoffs in his near 20 years in local media.