Brant is coming out of his shell as a vocal leader. I knew we had something special when he committed to us before he was a junior in high school.

Even if she doesn't score much, she's still our emotional, vocal leader that you follow. When you're missing a leader, things are going to be shaky, at first.

I think everybody knew he was going to be special, but we didn't know when. Just like Joe had a presence, Steve had a presence. It was different, but it was there. We just knew we were lucky to have two guys like that.

The fact we won is more important but it is special for me as far as coming back from an injury. I'm wearing a lighter brace now and it's nice to be able to do things I wasn't able to do before.

I led by example before. This year, I became more vocal. My teammates were my friends and they knew what we had to do.

Bernie is a great leader. He's a really vocal guy and really intense and you can see that in the huddle. You know he's going to go out there and lay it on the line for you, and you've got to do the same for him.