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January 16, 2006Making her markGlen Lake's Shimek rewrites record book at Michigan StateEAST LANSING - Michigan State's Liz Shimek is officially a trailblazer.The 6-foot-1 senior forward from Empire, Mich., grabbed 10 rebounds in the ninth-ranked Spartans' 79-63 win over Wisconsin on Thursday to reach 1,000 for her career. She became the first player in the program to reach the 1,000 mark in both points and rebounds. With 1,515 points, she is just the fifth player in school history to surpass 1,500 points. "I never really thought about it as being one of my goals. It's just something that comes with your role on the team and how you're supposed to help the team out," Shimek said. "With team success comes individual accolades." Coach Joanne P. McCallie's Spartans have had plenty of both in her six-year tenure. The reigning Big Ten champs reached their first Final Four last season as a No. 1 seed, thanks to homegrown talent such as Shimek and Lindsay Bowen. Shimek, who played her high school ball three hours away at Glen Lake, set the state high school record for career rebounds (1,533). Coming out of high school, Shimek narrowed her choices to Michigan State, Indiana and Michigan. "What caught my attention was just the family atmosphere that coach P and her staff has," Shimek said, "and coach P's passion behind what she's doing here. She just has a way of getting every single drop of blood from you." Shimek has transformed herself from a strictly back-to-the-basket post player to someone who can score both inside and out. She picked up her fourth Big Ten player of the week honor this week. She leads all conference players with seven games of 20 points or more. On Wednesday, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association named Shimek and Oklahoma freshman center Courtney Paris National Co-Players of the Month. "Liz has been amazing from day one. When we recruited her, her work ethic, her competitiveness, there are no words to describe how much she wants to compete," McCallie said. "Every year she's grown in so many ways." Odds are she'll collect a few more individual awards before the season's end. She'd like it to end in Boston in April with a second straight trip to the Final Four. "I look back on it now and how tough it really was last year and as a team how hard we battled," Shimek said. "All the struggles we went through were all worth it in the end."
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