Stella Sakalas had a full-circle moment Saturday night.

As the Nazareth senior basked in the celebration of her team’s win over Loyola in the Class 4A state championship game, Sakalas could reflect on a high school career bookended by two titles.

Sakalas’ connection to the Nazareth program goes back further, though. It’s part of her unique journey.

She was in fifth grade when her family moved back to the U.S. after living for 12 years in Australia. The first week back Stella’s dad found her an AAU basketball team with the Midwest Elite program coached by Nazareth’s Eddie Stritzel.

“Oh my gosh, that was one of the first things we did when we moved back,” Sakalas said. “We found that within the first couple days. Our practices were in the Nazareth building. It never felt like I was not part of the program.”

Sakalas as a freshman was the first girl off the bench for Nazareth’s senior and junior-laden 2023 Class 3A state champions, the program’s first.

The last two seasons she’s been the axis of Nazareth’s next great teams.

This season the 6-foot forward and BYU commit averaged 18.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists, while shooting 55.6% from the field, 43.6% from the 3-point line and 82.1% on free throws.

Sakalas scored 33 points in Nazareth’s regional final win over Young, and scored 30 in a Class 4A semifinal win over Belleville East.

It all culminated in a 55-23 win over Loyola, the largest margin ever in a Class 4A final and one of the most dominating wins in the 50-year history of the state finals.

She is the Suburban Life Player of the Year.

Sakalas will graduate from Nazareth as the second-highest scorer in program history, behind only Stritzel’s daughter Annie, and the winningest player.

“I thought she bridged the gap from Annie to Amalia [Dray], and with the next wave of kids she took it to the next level,” coach Stritzel said. “It’s an amazing record and she has her fingerprints all over it. She took a program that was really strong and I believe took it to the next level.”

Nazareth ended its season on a 25-game winning streak, holding Loyola 15 points below its previous season low.

“The whole season our main goal and priority has been our defense; we figured defense turns into offense,” Sakalas said. “We thought if we came together and solidified our defense we would be unstoppable.

“Our second half of the season we were holding teams to season lows a bunch of times. The coaches do an incredible job of preparing us.”

It should not surprise to see Sakalas have athletic success – it’s in the DNA.

Her parents met at Iowa State where her dad played center for the football team and her mom was a swimmer. Sakalas’ twin brothers Henry and Hank Sakalas play for Nazareth’s football team.

Stella was 1 year old and her mom pregnant with her twin brothers when the family moved to Melbourne, Australia, where they lived right by the beach.

Sakalas dabbled in rugby, cross country and track growing up. Her dad told her to do the sport that she loved. She loved basketball, was best at it and stuck with it.

“I have some great memories,” Sakalas said. “You start off in basketball a lot different there. At Nazareth we play our 2-3 zone. Zones were illegal in Australia.

“We started every practice, we wouldn’t touch a ball for 30-45 minutes, we worked on defense so much. Here with travel there’s 1-on-1 scoring but it’s so team-oriented there. It was so interesting to come here and completely switch game styles.”

Sakalas averaged 7.0 points and 3.3 rebounds as a freshman and 7.1 points and 4.3 rebounds as a sophomore. Those numbers jumped the last two seasons.

Stritzel said Sakalas’ overlooked value might have been her ball handling.

“The hidden value of Stella is when teams were pressing [point guard] Sophia [Towne],” Stritzel said. “Stella is a big kid, but when teams tried to put a big kid on her it was easy offense. She gets the ball in the open court, it’s hard to stay in front of her. A lot of teams did that. That’s where here real advantage is.”

A true three-level scorer, Sakalas is physical enough to score at the rim, but also has an efficient mid-range game and shoots well from the 3-point line.

That effectiveness does not happen by accident.

“It’s her work ethic,” Stritzel said. “As late as last week, practice ends at 7:30, practice is over, coaches are talking and she is by herself shooting in the gym. Her work ethic never changed, even after she got her scholarship. She did everything the right way.”

Sakalas is excited about the next chapter of her career at BYU. She said her college choice was all about connections and has felt validated about her commitment since making it. Her future head coach flew in to take in Nazareth games.

She said the people make the place, which was her experience at Nazareth.

“It’s been so wonderful. Some people say their programs are like a family and this program is truly like a family,” Sakalas said. “It truly is more than just basketball. It’s been such a great experience.”