How Brady Wehner’s upbringing as a youngest sibling molded her into a 1,000-point scorer for North Catholic
CRANBERRY TWP — Brady Wehner used to try to keep pace with her older siblings, both of whom starred in their respective high school sports and continued their careers at the next level.
These days, the North Catholic junior guard views herself as the older sister as she leads the Trojanettes’ girls basketball team.
Wehner entered Wednesday night’s PIAA Class 4A second-round playoff matchup against Harbor Creek needing four points to reach 1,000 for her career. She got it with 3:15 left in first half against the Huskies when she rebounded her own miss and scored.
“Getting to 1,000 was a plus, but it wasn’t about that tonight,” Wehner said after the game. “It was about the team, finding a way to win and get to the next round, and we did that.”
It was her second basket in the game. She finished with 14 points in the Trojanettes’ 63-51 win to advance to the state quarterfinals.
“My family, we’ve always worked so hard,” Wehner said after North Catholic downed Forest Hills in the first round of the state tournament. “When we were younger, we were very competitive, and that helped me. And just my coaches and my teammates, pushing me to be my best. … The people around me are the ones that helped me get here.”
Both of Wehner’s older siblings also played basketball in the WPIAL. Her sister, Jayla, was a three-time first-team all-conference honoree at Norwin, while her brother, Payton, played football and hoops at Central Catholic.
Neither of them reached 1,000 career points on the hardwood, though.
“It sometimes ended in fights and tears,” Brady said of growing up with them. “But looking back now, it really helped me to where I am now, and it only made me better from just growing up and realizing they were just trying to push me to be my best.”
“Everything you can throw at them, they’ve already had from their siblings,” said Trojanettes coach Molly Rottmann, the youngest of five. “The abuse and bullying that goes on with siblings is awesome and hysterical and also … you learn how to deal with all sorts of things — positive, negative — and you can’t react, or it’ll just intensify.”
Playing 1-on-1 with Jayla and Payton as children, Brady couldn’t compete physically. She could never get past them and remembers Payton letting her know it.
Brady wouldn’t go as far as to say she’d get her payback nowadays.
“Low-key, I think my sister, she graduated (from college) like four years ago,” Brady said. “My brother still might beat me. He’s a college athlete. It’s hard to beat them.”
Listening to Rottmann describe Brady’s talents as a three-level scorer, it sounds like she’d have a puncher’s chance.
“She’s totally expanded her game,” Rottmann said. “Her freshman year, she was playing with Alayna Rocco, and that helped open up Alayna a bit. … She did a really great job in that role her freshman year, but now she’s had to elevate her game.
“She has done that. She has a great mid-range, obviously her 3(-pointer) is there. She sees the floor really well.”
With the expanded workload came more responsibility, and stepping into a leadership role wasn’t easy in the beginning, Brady admitted. Rottmann doesn’t believe it’s in Brady’s nature to be vocal but has seen her make strides doing so.
“It really keeps you on your toes to bring it every single day, and in practice, you have to be on your ‘A’ game, just so the younger people can look up to you and follow in your footsteps,” Brady said. “That’s really my biggest thing. I wanna be a good influence on the younger players. Those are my little sisters.”
Butler Eagle sports writer Derek Pyda contributed to this story.
