Three hours. That’s the amount of time it takes to drive from Oshkosh, Wis., to DeKalb. But for freshman Jessie Wilcox, Oshkosh felt as close as China.

Wilcox picked up basketball in fourth grade. At first, her father Jamie thought she was playing just to please him and her mother Jean. But he soon discovered his daughter had a passion for the game.

As her high school career was coming to a close, Wilcox knew she wanted to play at the next level. The guard had an impressive résumé to show prospective schools. In four years, her team had won two state championships, appeared in three Final Fours and made it to the Elite Eight every year.

And then there were the intangibles.

Wilcox was a good student earning academic letters. She gave back to the community by serving as a DARE role model. She was a perfect recruit.

All Wilcox asked in return was to be close to home. But as she scoured the state of Wisconsin, no one had a need for her. That’s when Wilcox found NIU.

“NIU had a position open,” her father said, “but it was a tough decision because it was still far away.”

Wilcox made the choice to cross the state line. But under one condition: Her parents had to promise to come to every home game. Jamie and Jean agreed to the deal.

As a freshman, the guard found instant success. She skipped the bench, started 26 games and became a crucial part of the Huskies.

But something wasn’t right.

“Freshman year, even though I was playing and starting … I was a wreck,” Wilcox said. “I was homesick.”

Worst of all, the freshman was trapped in DeKalb. Team rules don’t allow freshmen to bring cars to campus.

Oshkosh was only three hours away, but Wilcox had no way to get home. There were no buses, no trains or even planes to take her back. All she could do was call home and hope her parents would pick her up.

But most of her calls home didn’t ask for rides. Instead, the guard would tell her mom how much she missed Oshkosh. Like any mother, Jean would start to cry for her baby. She just wanted her daughter to be happy; she just wanted to give her a hug.

NIU head coach Carol Owens could tell her star freshman missed the comforts of home.

“You always know it,” Owens said. “I could tell. Every weekend that we had free, she was going home.”

None of her friends from high school came to NIU. And while most freshmen were making new friends, Wilcox was either at the gym, at study tables or going to class.

By the end of freshman year Wilcox was ready to leave. But her parents wouldn’t let her quit that easily. Wilcox had made them promise to come to every home game – and they kept their end of the deal.

Jamie and Jean drove the three hours on weeknights and weekends, in snow and rain whether they were healthy or sick, to watch their daughter. And after giving their daughter a hug and goodbye, mom and dad turned around, driving another three hours home.

They had kept their promise to their daughter. Now they made her make a promise to them: Stick it out one more year and then make a decision.

Wilcox came back for her second year. Things were only getting better on the court. A starter for every game, the guard was the third leading scorer for the Huskies and produce 84 assists.

At the end of the 31-game schedule, Jamie and Jean brought up the conversation.

“After her sophomore year, we kind of said, ‘Do you want to come back home and go to school in Oshkosh?'” Jamie said. “But [Jessie] made up her mind and said, ‘No, I like it here.'”

Wilcox found a way to make DeKalb not so different from home. She met new friends, found ways to separate her life from basketball and finally had her car.

But there was always one part of home that she couldn’t recreate without a little help – her family.

It is because of them, because they were willing to drive the three hours to DeKalb and then three hours back to Oshkosh, that Wilcox was able to maintain her passion for basketball.

“They have really been the backbone for me,” the senior said. “Even the games when it’s blizzarding and snowing, they’ll come down and support me even though I tell them not to. They are crazy, and they are loving. I don’t know how I would have managed if I didn’t have them.”