Junior guard Sophia Towne’s connection to Nazareth goes back to the beginning of Eddie Stritzel’s coaching tenure. Stritzel even has a photo of Towne with his daughter Annie taken in October 2016. “When I took the job at Nazareth in 2016, we started running a little skill session for our gramm ar school kids,” Eddie Stritzel said. “Sophia’s family was the first family I met.” Annie Stritzel was about to begin her sophomore season, still a year away from leading the Roadrunners to the first of their five state trophies. Towne was in second grade. “Sophia calls Annie her big sister,” Eddie Stritzel said. “Nine years later, she’s the backbone of our program.” Indeed, the 5-foot-10 Towne has developed into a Division I prospect and one of the best players in program history. Some have called Towne the best pure point guard that Eddie Stritzel has coached. “I wouldn’t argue with that,” he said. “She’s quick, she’s long and she defends nonstop too. “We ask a lot of her. We ask her to run the show on offense and guard the best player on the defensive end, and she’s just a wonderful kid.” In Towne’s third varsity season but first as the starting point guard, she’s averaging 13.0 points, 4.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 steals for the Roadrunners (21-3, 7-1), who ended Benet’s 20-game winning streak in an East Suburban Catholic Conference victory Wednesday and are a strong contender to win their second state championship in four years. But numbers don’t define Towne as much as her intangibles do. Senior guard Lyla Shelton and senior forward Stella Sakalas, who are Nazareth’s co-captains, laud Towne’s character as well as her physical skills. “Sophia is the most humble person I’ve ever met in my life,” Shelton said. “She is perfect in every way. “She’s so good at facilitating the ball, and she finds people. But she doesn’t like people coming up to her and saying she’s so good. She’s just a humble person.” Towne is also a person who pays attention to only one statistic, which is wins. “She can shoot it, but she doesn’t care about points,” Shelton said. “She just facilitates. She’s a really good player, and it’s so fun to play with her.” Nazareth’s Sophia Towne (5) makes a no-look pass against Benet during an East Suburban Catholic Conference game in Lisle on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2026. (Troy Stolt / Pioneer Press) The BYU-bound Sakalas, who leads the Roadrunners in scoring, is also a big supporter of her fellow Western Springs resident. “I’ve been playing with Sophia long before Nazareth,” Sakalas said. “She’s such a good teammate and such a good player. “She’s very humble and just wants to see the team succeed, and with the team succeeding, she succeeds as well. She looks for the good in others, which reflects on herself.” When Towne reflects on her basketball career to date, her memories begin and end with the Roadrunners and the Stritzels. “I’ve always been a fan of Naz and coach Eddie and Annie,” Towne said. “I’ve grown up watching Annie (play) in high school. Me and my dad would always go down to the state basketball games every year leading up to eighth grade, and my freshman year we went downstate, so it was super awesome to be a part of that.” Towne was a reserve during her freshman season, when the Roadrunners went 32-4 and finished second in Class 4A. She scored five points in 15 minutes of action against Waubonsie Valley in the state semifinals and played four minutes as the only nonstarter Nazareth used during a 44-40 loss to Loyola in the state championship game. Towne was used mostly as a shooting guard last season, when the Roadrunners went 31-3 and lost 72-71 to eventual 4A state champion Kenwood in the sectional semifinals. Now she’s the floor general for Nazareth. “She’s become such a good point guard,” Sakalas said. “She’s always handled the ball but never played the 1. She’s taken that on and really gotten better at it. She’s very coachable.” Nazareth’s Sophia Towne shoots the ball during an East Suburban Catholic Conference game against Benet in Lisle on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2026. (Troy Stolt / Pioneer Press) Towne has been taking instruction from Shelton and Sakalas as well as Eddie Stritzel. “This year I’ve been really focusing on my point guard abilities,” Towne said. “I wanted to get better and be able to handle the pressure. I’m focusing on not turning it over and being able to set up our offense, which has been really helpful.” Having great senior leadership also has helped Towne. “Stella and Lyla are amazing captains,” Towne said. “I look up to them so much. We’re all super close friends, so it makes practice and games so much fun. We talk forever in film and practice, and we all just love being there. So it’s a really great environment that they’ve created.” Eddie Stritzel marvels at Towne’s enthusiasm and energy. “She’s one of those kids you just love coaching,” Eddie Stritzel said after Nazareth defeated Maine South at Coach Kipp’s Hoopsfest on Jan. 17. “At 6:30 this morning, we’re in the film room, and she’s crawling on the floor, going underneath the tables. She’s like one of those kids who just has energy. I said, ‘Save your energy for today.’” By the time Towne’s run at Nazareth ends, she could rank among the five best players ever coached by Eddie Stritzel, who guided Trinity for nine seasons. He said Lykendra Johnson, Megan Podkowa, Amalia Dray, and current assistant coaches Annie Stritzel and Lauren Matthews are the top five at the moment. Johnson played at Michigan State and had a seven-year professional career in Sweden and Greece. Podkowa and Matthews played at DePaul, Annie Stritzel played at Harvard and Dray is playing soccer at Boston College. “She keeps building,” Eddie Stritzel said of Towne. “I think she and Stella have a chance to eclipse two of those.” Nazareth’s Sophia Towne, right, dribbles the ball up the court as she’s guarded by Benet’s Ava Thomas during an East Suburban Catholic Conference game in Lisle on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2026. (Troy Stolt / Pioneer Press) Towne’s recruiting is just beginning to heat up. She has more than 10 Division I offers already and said she’s going to consider the fit, not the fame, of schools first. “Sophia runs her own race,” Eddie Stritzel said. “She doesn’t worry about what this kid is getting. It’s going to be, ‘That coach loves me, and I want to play for them.’” That’s exactly what Nazareth has been for Towne. “I feel like Naz has helped me so much with that,” Towne said of the recruiting process. “I want to go to a school where I’m close to the coaches and my teammates, where I’m excited to go to practice, which is how Naz has been for my three years here. So focusing on who the coaches are is important.” Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter. ...read more read less