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Andrew Horschak spent 25 years covering prep sports in Wisconsin, including 21 at the Kenosha News. He recently relocated to southern California, where he freelances for The Desert Sun and The Orange County Register amongst others. He is an occasional contributor to WisSports.net as well.

“Don’t let me down.”

I remember saying those four words to Kenosha St. Joseph senior basketball player Sidney Cooks in February of 2013 when she was an eighth-grader at Washington Middle School.

Earlier that year, I started to hear rumblings about a 6-foot-4 grade-school phenom who had received scholarship offers from NCAA Division I programs LSU and Purdue, not to mention high interest from Kansas State, Marquette, Michigan State and Wisconsin, before playing in her first high school game.

After investigating, it didn’t take long to determine that the 14-year-old was worthy of a blowout feature story in the Kenosha News.

I was still hesitant, though.

In almost two decades working in Kenosha, I had never profiled an athlete who competed below the varsity level. Along with my own reputation, I was worried about heaping more pressure atop the already-lofty expectations.

Given the blessing from her family and school, I wrote a rather lengthy piece that garnered a top front-page headline of “SHE’S GOT GAME” in a Monday edition.

In addition to describing her ball-handling, shot-swatting and 3-point-swishing prowess, the story also focused on her interests away from the hardwood and classroom performance.

She was an impressive package, for sure.

As expected, more scholarship offers poured in once Cooks started high school and she continued to develop and receive attention on the AAU circuit.

On Tuesday, Cooks celebrated her 18th birthday by selecting Michigan State and signing her National Letter of Intent during a festive assembly in her high school gymnasium.

Ranked fifth nationally by ESPN HoopGurlz, the first-team All-State performer selected the Spartans over Michigan, Purdue, UCLA and Wisconsin, who she tabbed among her final five earlier this fall.

“We are beyond excited to welcome Sidney to the Spartan family,” Michigan State coach Suzy Merchant said in a press release. “She is extremely talented and brings tremendous versatility and skill to our program. At 6-4, she has the ability to play multiple positions on the court as well as block shots and rebound in the paint.”

The decorated Cooks led the Lancers to a WIAA Division 4 state runner-up finish last year after averaging 23.1 points, 12.5 rebounds, 3.7 blocked shots and 2.9 assists per contest.

Over the summer, she was a member of the USA Basketball Women’s U-18 National Team and brought home a gold medal from the FIBA Americas U-18 Championships in Valdivia, Chile. In addition, she also won a silver medal in the FIBA 3-on-3 U-18 World Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan.

When it was announced last Tuesday, that Cooks had made her decision and Michigan State would be her collegiate destination, I thought back to our first meeting. After explaining to her that I generally didn’t write feature stories about non-varsity athletes, I said playfully, “Don’t let me down.”

In the end, I had no reason to worry.