Carleigh Wenzel comes from a basketball family.
Her parents, Bobby and Cameron, both played at the Division III level in Texas, her father at Concordia (Austin) and her mother at McMurry (Abilene). They raised two hoopers in Carleigh, a redshirt freshman with Virginia Tech women’s basketball, and Brendan, three years older who is a 6-7, 208-pound forward at Wyoming.
Growing up in San Antonio, Bobby trained the kids outside in the Texas heat, from ball-handling and cone drills to jump roping. That kind of pressure helped shape Brendan and Carleigh into Division I basketball players.
“You go back to all the memories we have from in the gym, being family, but also my dad being our coach, it’s something that I won’t regret,” Carleigh Wenzel told Tech Sideline in October. “I’m never going to regret that, and that’s something I can always look back on and be thankful for as someone who pushed us, and my mom would be at home making dinner when we got back and ask, ‘How was practice?’ That’s something I know that not everybody gets to experience, so I’m grateful.”
Wenzel was a 1,000-point scorer at O’Connor High School as a freshman and sophomore. She spent her junior and senior years at Antonian College Prep, where she eclipsed 1,500 points. Ranked the No. 44 overall recruit in the 2022 class by ESPN, she knew she didn’t want to stay in Texas. It helped that she had a front-row seat to Brendan’s college recruitment, which was an influence in a number of areas.
The No. 18 recruit in the Lone Star State in the class of 2019 according to Rivals, he originally signed with UTEP before flipping to Utah. He spent the 2019-20 season there and redshirted before transferring to Wyoming.
“Seeing my brother go as far as he went, he started at Utah and then now at Wyoming, he went pretty far,” Wenzel said. “I was like, ‘If he can enjoy it, I feel like it’s not something I would struggle with, so I really let myself be open to hearing from farther schools. And I feel like when I did that, I really connected with Coach [Kenny] Brooks on another level than I did with any other coach.”
Her recruiting process was lengthy — she was starstruck by the number of schools offering her opportunities across the country — and it was tough to narrow down her top schools. Her mom helped her make a chart with pros and cons of each school, from academics to best relationship to best basketball program, which helped her realize which schools should be her main focus. Virginia Tech was in the top three in just about every category.
Her first official visit to Blacksburg was Labor Day weekend for the North Carolina football game in 2021. She stepped on campus and loved it, experienced Enter Sandman and committed on the spot. At that point, the Hokies were coming off a 15-10 season and had just made the NCAA tournament for the first time in 15 years.
“Seeing how locked in he was on me and my progress and how bad he wanted me and how much he expressed that,” Wenzel said of Brooks and the Hokies’ pursuit, “I think that’s when I decided I didn’t want to look anywhere else, and I’m good where I’m at. It was the first visit I took, and I decided to commit on the spot.
“[Brooks] left and I had gotten back in the room with my parents and I was like, ‘Hey, I think I want to commit.’ My mom was like, ‘If you’re going to commit, don’t wait till we go back home, just do it if you want to do it. So I called him back. … And I remember walking off the elevator and said, ‘I decided I’m going to commit’ and he threw his hands up, started yelling, dancing, all this stuff. … Seeing how excited and expressive of his feeling that he was, I think it’s something that really just locked me in.”
Wenzel was part of a three-person high school recruiting class that also included Charlise Dunn and Maddie Vejsicky, who have since transferred. What she didn’t expect, though, was Brooks’ offer to sit out the 2022-23 season and redshirt.
He approached Wenzel before the season and made the suggestion, highlighting the fact that he’d get to work with her in Blacksburg for an extra year. It was another scenario where it helped being familiar with her brother’s situation — Brendan redshirted in his first and only year in Salt Lake City.
“It kind of took me by surprise because it wasn’t something that we had planned on, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing,” Wenzel said. “I just went home and talked to my parents, I called my brother right after telling my parents … because he had went through it and everything. He was like, ‘Why wouldn’t you take it? It’s going to be beneficial to you.’
“Hearing him say that, that’s what really told me to do it. I was definitely questioning it, and then talking to him, that’s what kind of made me decide to take it and go with it. And he had just told me, ‘Don’t think because you’re not playing, don’t fall back and just be there. Still be present, still be locked in on what you would be doing if you were playing.’ So that’s kind of how I went about the season. I think it paid off, I think I got a lot out of the process.”
Wenzel admitted it was hard sitting on the bench while her teammates were out on the floor winning — in dominant fashion, too. The Hokies had a historic season, finishing 31-5, posting a 15-game winning streak, winning an ACC championship and making a run to the Final Four in Dallas.
But she understood she was surrounded by a group of veterans who were driven. She remembers talking to them before the season — from Taylor Soule, Kayana Traylor and D’asia Gregg to Elizabeth Kitley, Cayla King and Georgia Amoore — about their goals.
“Obviously, they all wanted to go far,” she said. “That’s what they were determined on, that’s what they wanted, so I knew that I needed to do what I needed to do for them to experience what they needed and wanted to experience in their last year. … We were there for them because they brought me there, but at the same time, I took it all in as well.”
Brooks described it as a “necessary moment” for Wenzel to redshirt. In his mind, she needed a season to develop, and there was no better backcourt trio to do that behind than Amoore, King and Traylor.
Associate head coach Lindsey Hicks told Tech Sideline in April that Wenzel had moments of brilliance in practice last season where she was like, “OK, Carleigh! That’s a really good move against a really good player.” But at the same time, Wenzel needed that redshirt year to get some extra work in the weight room with strength coach Greg Werner, continue to hone her craft and to mature, all things she did.
The toughest part throughout the season was her being on a different schedule than everyone else on game days. She’d get to Hahn Hurst early to workout and lift before running her teammates in pregame warmups and then cheering them on from the bench.
“I wouldn’t say it was fun, but it wasn’t like I was struggling,” Wenzel said. “Like I was enjoying being there for my teammates and going through the process with them, so it wasn’t hard or anything like that. It definitely sucked having to put in all the work and then just sit on the bench, but it was worth it because of how talented we were and the history we were making.”
She took in so much of what she saw from her older teammates last year, particularly their in-game composure. And she’s still learning from them heading into her redshirt freshman season, especially from someone like Amoore, who frequently provides feedback on where she can improve her game.
“In practice, Georgia is probably one of my biggest… cheerleaders,” Wenzel said. “She’s constantly telling me, ‘Hey, good job on this, look at this next time.’ … She’s always telling me, ‘Just be consistent, you don’t have to be the one making the play, just be solid.’ … I feel like that’s something I definitely need, but I definitely want.”
When Virginia Tech’s season ended in Dallas in the Final Four on March 31, just north of Wenzel’s hometown of San Antonio, Brooks pulled her aside after the game and told her, “You’re eligible for our very next game now.” Wenzel acknowledged reality hadn’t hit her yet because she was so focused on her teammates — and it didn’t really until the seniors were selected in the WNBA Draft and moved on — but it eventually set in.
Much of her work in the offseason went to adjusting her shot and putting on some more weight to be able to play against bigger, stronger guards. At six feet tall, Wenzel, who was a natural point guard in high school but can also play off the ball, is lengthier than many players she’ll face, yet she still has the speed to get downhill. She’s got a different build from Amoore, the MVP of last year’s ACC women’s basketball tournament, who is listed at 5-6.
Wenzel could give the Hokies the opportunity to play Amoore off the ball more this season at times, though the Aussie, who averaged 16 and 5 last year, will be dangerous wherever she is on the floor. Brooks told Tech Sideline in August that he wasn’t sure where he’d play Wenzel this season due to her versatility, but the Greece trip provided some clarity.
“She’s had some moments this summer where she struggled a little bit because she was putting so much pressure on herself leading up to the Greece trip,” Brooks said. “But she went over to the Greece trip and she played well, I was very pleased with that. … She can play the off, she can play point guard, and her size gives her an advantage when she’s a point guard. She can do some things with the basketball that nobody else on our team can do.”
Wenzel has yet to step on the court for Virginia Tech, but when she does, presumably in less than four weeks in the season opener vs. High Point, it’ll be a moment that’s been a long time coming.
“I’m excited to just be able to get back on the court,” Wenzel said. “... I think Coach Brooks has trust in me; obviously, I need to build it with him more, and I think that’ll come with games, but I’m definitely excited to be back and be able to get a chance to prove myself again.”