For local hoops star, a championship game, a spot on US national team, and beyond

By Sudsy Cheroot
Sun sports writer
Pete Schimpke replaced a northern Michigan basketball coaching legend when he took over Ted Swierad’s Glen Lake girls team in 1999. Never easy to replace a Hall of Famer, the transition was a lot easier when he first laid eyes on a rapidly budding superstar, sophomore Liz Shimek. “You could see her potential from the first day,” he remembers.” She was hard working, a quick learner, and I had no doubt she would be successful eventually at the highest level of the women’s game.
“Many players have God-given abilities,” he emphasized,” but what separates Liz is maximizing her abilities by always outworking everyone, whether it was in the weight room, last one to leave practice, or just leaving everything on the floor for games. She was a coach’s dream.”

Speaking of dreams, 2004-05 Michigan State University women’s basketball season was a dream season, as the Spartans reached the National Championship game before losing to Baylor, and in the second installment of this two-part series on Liz Shimek, we focus on her still-fresh memories from this memorable year.
Over the past few years when you talk dynasty in women’s college basketball, the University of Connecticut and coach Geno Auriemma is where you start, and when the Michigan State Spartans traveled to Connecticut for an early-season game, they faced a Herculean task. The team from East Lansing had cracked the top 10 in the national polls, but few gave them much of a chance against the perennial national power, the Huskies.
“We were so focused in the pre-game shoot-around,” Liz remembers, “we attacked them and before we knew it we were up by 21. It was a great game and we were excited to win, and after that we really started to believe in ourselves.”
Liz had other full-ride scholarship offers coming out of high school, including the University of Michigan and Indiana University, but after meeting with Coach Joan McCallie at MSU she was sold on the Spartans. “Coach McCallie has such a passion for the game, but also wants her players to succeed on and off the court.” Liz added that “the family atmosphere was very important too.” Rolling through an incredibly tough Big Ten Conference schedule playing nationally-ranked teams such as Ohio State, Purdue and Penn State toughened the Spartans. “We attacked teams offensively, and our match-up zone defense got better and better. The team really made the commitment to doing whatever it took,” she said.
The Big Ten Championship and a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament were the next successful stops on the quest for a national championship. When Liz looks back on the tournament run, the win over Tennessee stands out in her mind. Assistant coaches Al Brown and Semeka Randall had both been part of Pat Summitt’s staff at Tennessee. The most successful coach in NCAA basketball history – men or women – and Brown and Randall instilled confidence in the team that they could beat Tennessee, a team that awed everyone.
“Beating Tennessee was the best part of the season,” Liz gushed. “That proved to us that we could do anything.” An eventual loss in the National Championship game did nothing to diminish Liz’s enthusiasm and happiness over the dream season.
But not long after the dream season ended, it was back to work for Liz Shimek. She was recently in Colorado for tryouts for the US national team which will compete in Turkey for the world championships later this year. Liz made the first round of cuts, and pending what happens in August, has made the team, at least for the time being. She will counsel at Michigan State basketball camps this summer, and then the whole team, including the new freshman recruits, will start summer school and regular practice at the end of July. When asked what she will be working on individually this summer, Liz replied, “I will continue to improve my ball-handling and shooting off the dribble,” then added, with self-assuredness, “and solidifying my three-point shot.”
With her senior year still to come, and listening to the quiet confidence in her voice, this reporter will not be surprised if a national championship and WNBA career are not in Liz Shimek’s future.