Jan. 4, 2010
Hello all! My name is Shelly Szmyt and I am currently a senior at La Salle University, and also a member of the Women’s Basketball team. If you are wondering why you have never seen me on the court or even heard of me, I have quite the story that I will just sum up quickly for you!
In 2006, before coming to La Salle I tore my ACL. I had surgery and red shirted the 2006-2007 season. After recovering a full year after surgery, I started playing in the 2007-2008 season. I played one game until I tore my ACL again in the second game that year against Loyola Maryland. I have since had 4 more surgeries on my knee, and this season I had to finally listen to my body and call it quits. My knee would not take to all the surgeries and due to the torture my knee has gone through, I had to stop playing for medical reasons.
Do not feel bad for me! I scored my career high six points that one game I played in so I had my opportunity to ball! No, but in all seriousness, I have learned a great deal about patience and mental strength. I have become a stronger person and realized the importance of staying positive even when times are tough. These lessons have prepared me for the future as cliché as that sounds!
The coaches here have been amazing and I am currently labeled an assistant student coach here. They hooked me up with some really fun responsibilities like laundry and water/towels, and even running the clock during practice! I am being sarcastic. Although those duties really are not all that bad, they were not the most appealing reason for why I took this important, powerful position as student assistant coach. Blogging is the most exciting part of this new position! So here goes nothing! Welcome to our season out of the view of my beautiful eyes!
Finishing off 2009, we were 4-9 illustrating the rough times we have had so far this season. We had quite a few games where we just could not keep our lead and were defeated at the end of the game. Games like Lehigh and Villanova were ones which were close all the way through and we could have won, but just could not clamp it at the end.
Our game against Delaware was one well fought; however, we just could not seem to pull it together at the very end to beat them. We held Della Donne to only 17 points which was one of our goals for the game. It was awesome to watch the girls work so hard to shut her down! It is a shame we lost that game because we were all so hyped up to play Delaware again on their home court. We pulled out a victory over them two years ago in the 2007-2008 season, beating them for the first time on their court since 1996, but last year they were our first loss of the season.
We brought in 2010 with a win against Penn who is one of our Big 5 competitors. The game was a good start to the New Year because we start A10 play on Saturday, January 9 at Richmond. The game should be a good one to catch, and hopefully we will pull off a win for our first A10 game this year. I think it will be a huge opportunity for us to come back and not only make the A10 tournament, but hopefully prove our ability and wreak some havoc among the conference this year!
Until next time!
