Skylights ink Joilet standout guard

The Frontier Conference women's basketball season has only been over for a short time, but Montana State University-Northern head coach Chris Mouat is already hard at work on the recruiting trail.

Mouat recently announced the signing of Joilet High School standout Rachelle Bennett, an exciting 5-8 guard. Bennett is a star basketball player for the J-Hawks, having earned Class C All-State honors in each of the last three seasons. She's also a stellar all-around athlete, as she has earned all state in track three times and twice in volleyball.

"Rachelle is a great athlete, and her upside in college is huge," Mouat said. " She has the potential to be a great player in our league and program. She already does a lot of things very well and is coming from a proven winner at Joliet. She has been well-coached, loves basketball, and is hungry to get better."

As a senior, Bennett helped guide the J-Hawks to their second straight State Class C Tournament appearance. Bennett set a number of all-time marks at Joliet High School including career scoring (1371 points), season scoring (431 points), career rebounds (632), season steals (111), career steals (264), career assists (294), and steals in a game (9).

"Rachelle is a great addition to our program and an outstanding start to our 2011-2012 recruiting class," Mouat said. "She has been a huge success in three sports at Joliet and had a great state basketball tournament. We are very excited that she has chosen to be a Skylight, and we believe her future here is very bright both on the court and in the classroom."

Bennett maintains a 3.5 grade point average and is planning on majoring in biology or nursing at MSU-Northern. She is the daughter of Bryon Bennett and Colette and Greg Evertz.