After spending her first three years of high school playing basketball at Morris, Landrie Callahan found a place she could call home for her senior season.

Callahan and her sister, Layken, transferred to Providence this season, joining a team that had reached the Class 3A sectional championship the previous season and already had a wealth of talent returning.

Sometimes it can be difficult for a star player in one program to adjust to being in another program, but Landrie Callahan didn’t find it a problem. All the 6-foot forward did with her new team was set a school record with 716 points this season. She scored in double figures in all 36 of the Celtics’ games and had a double-double in 18 of those. Her 38 points in the sectional championship game against Hillcrest set a Celtics’ record for points in a game, and Providence produced a program-record 31 wins.

For all her accomplishments, Landrie Callahan is the 2026 Herald-News Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

Callahan finished her career with 2,309 points and holds the Morris school record for career points with 1,593 and career rebounds with 1,089.

Callahan was an IBCA Class 3A First-Team All-State this season. She was among 10 IBCA Illinois Ms. Basketball nominees, a Class 3A Second-Team All-State last season and a Special Mention All-State in 2024. She was All-Girls Catholic Athletic Conference Red and MVP at the WJOL, Oak Lawn and Sandburg tournaments.

“We had a heck of a year this year,” Callahan said. “I owe it all to my teammates and coaching staff. This is the best team I have been on, especially with having such supportive teammates.

“The girls on this team made a point to make me and Layken comfortable from the moment we got here. I could tell the difference from the first open gym we went to. The coaches and players care about you outside of the basketball court, and they ask about your lives. Having players and coaches do that makes it very easy to work with them. Once you are on the court, you trust them. You know that if you aren’t doing well that night that the rest of the team will be there to pick you up.”

Providence coach Eileen Copenhaver couldn’t have been happier with the addition.

“Landrie’s numbers speak for themselves,” Copenhaver said. “She is a powerhouse inside, yet has excellent shooting guard skills. She just had an incredible season. I am one lucky coach to have been able to coach this team and have Landrie for one year. We have really connected, and she was receptive to our coaching staff, worked hard every day at practice, was an excellent teammate and brought good positive energy.

“She learned more on how to handle the ‘hard’ things with maturity, leadership and control, and then all year she played like the dominant player that she is. I am looking forward to her time at the Division 1 level at Pepperdine. There will be growing pains as there are with most freshmen, but she is tough, she is coachable, she is determined, and she is a good teammate that will only get better and make her team better. It will be fun to watch her excel at Pepperdine.”

Although she said Pepperdine plans to use her as a wing player, she played mostly in the post in high school. She came by that position naturally, as her father, Brennan, was a 6-7 center for Seneca High School and Lewis University, while her mother, Laney, was a 6-0 post player for Morris High School and the University of St. Francis. Brennan was also the head boys basketball coach at Sandwich for five seasons.

“I honestly don’t remember a time when I didn’t have a basketball in my hands,” Callahan said. “My dad or mom would work with me all the time. There were a lot of early mornings or late nights. My dad would bring me to his practices sometimes, and we were always working on my footwork in the post and stuff like that.

“I will probably play on the wing at Pepperdine, but it is nice that I have the ability to play with my back to the basket since I did it so much in high school.”

Callahan’s extended family is also all about basketball. Her aunts – Bryanne and Amberley – both starred for Seneca and played at Lewis and USF, respectively. Her uncles, Garrett and Griffan, both won a state title playing for Seneca and played for South Dakota State.

“I grew up around the game,” Callahan said. “I heard about my aunts and uncles, and I wanted to do better than they did.”

Before she could do that, however, she had to fit in with her new team.

“It didn’t take long,” she said. “I would say that by the second open gym, I knew I was in the right place. Almost everyone on the team was there, and we went at each other hard, pushing ourselves to make each other better. Grace Lustig, who was coming from volleyball, is about my size, but she’s a lot stronger. Once she started with us, she kind of got under my skin a little bit, but in a good way. She was playing me like I was going to get played all year, and it helped.

“Those open gyms, as well as the competition we played all year, let me know what I had to work on and improve. I had to improve my post defense, and I was glad to have girls on my team that would help me with that.

“I also liked that coach Copenhaver wanted the whole team to be in the spotlight. I might have scored, but she always talked about how the team worked together to get me the ball. I don’t want to be above anyone, and I know it takes everyone on the floor doing their jobs in order for me to do mine.”