AURORA | The balloon popped on Fran Belibi’s recruiting process Monday.
The Regis Jesuit junior basketball star — who had more than 200 standing offers from colleges on the table since her breakout sophomore season — announced her decision with a balloon-popping ceremony at the school.
Flanked by beaming parents Frank and Suzanne plus Raiders coach Carl Mattei, Belibi had red, white, orange and green balloons in front of her representing her four finalists and picked Stanford.
Harvard, Princeton and Notre Dame were the other finalists from a list that had been pared down from triple figures since Belibi became a nationwide sensation when she became the first Colorado girls basketball player to dunk in a game back in the 2015-16 season.
“We made a chart and we just went through and checked off what was most important to me as a person and to my family,” Belibi told The Sentinel. “At the end, Stanford has the most things that were more important to us, so it was a no-brainer.”
With parents who are both doctors, academics weighed heavily into the consideration process for Belibi, who scored a 35 out of 36 on her ACT and surely could have earned a number of academic scholarships. While the other schools certainly have those strengths, none could match the blending of academics and athletics Belibi found at Stanford.
On the court, she’ll be able to play for coach Tara VanDerveer, who has coached the Cardinal since 1996 and led Stanford to the NCAA Women’s Final Four as recently as the 2017 season. The Cardinal had a 24-11 record last season and a 14-3 mark in the Pac-12.
VanDerveer is surely eager to work with a player whose physical potential is just beginning to be tapped into after just three full seasons of playing basketball.
Of course, her dunk against Grand Junction last season thrust her onto the national stage, but the 6-foot-1 forward has been much more than that. Belibi has been the steady force behind consecutive trips to the Class 5A state semifinals for Regis Jesuit and twice earned Continental League Player of the Year honors.
Best of all, Belibi got the decision out of the way during the tail end of her junior year, leaving time to enjoy the upcoming summer — when she will try out for USA Basketball’s Women’s U17 National Team — and her senior year.
“A lot of my friends are seniors and its been nervewracking for them, so to have gotten this out of the way before summer and senior year, it’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” Belibi said.
With Belibi now committed and senior Jasmine Gaines now bound for the University of Illinois (Chicago), Regis Jesuit has now has produced 36 Division I signees/commitments since the girls program began in 2004.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Sentinel Prep Sports