Sports: Coach P Reloads for Another NCAA Run

            Reloading with five highly-touted newcomers, National Coach of the Year Joanne McCallie aims for another dream season.

            Although she enjoyed a brilliant season and Coach of the Year honors, Joanne P. McCallie is not ready to rest on her laurels just yet.

            “Each season is its own journey, and a new opportunity,” explains McCallie.  “We have a new team.  We lost two players but have five new ones, so that’s a net change of seven.  You simply have a great time building the team in front of you, and you do that every year.”

            Last season she led the MSU women’s basketball team to its greatest season in history—a record 33 wins, a Big Ten title, a Big Ten tournament championship, and advancing to the NCAA championship game while shattering record after record.  She was named Associated Press Coach of the Year for 2005, Nike Basketball Clinic Coach of 2005, and was inducted into the Maine Sports Legends Hall of Fame.  

            Although center Kelli Roehrig and point guard Kristin Haynie have graduated, coach Joanne P. McCallie welcomes some outstanding veterans along with an exceptional class of newcomers.   

            MSU returns nine letter winners, including All American candidates Liz Shimek and Lindsay Bowen, both seniors. Shimek, an Honorable Mention All-American, is one of two dozen players on the watch list for the Wade Trophy, emblematic of the nation’s top player.  Shimek is on pace to become the first Spartan to notch 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.  This summer she helped Team USA win the gold medal at the World University Games in Izmir, Turkey.  Bowen, a candidate for the Wooden Award, is a sharpshooter who holds MSU career records for 3-point baskets (226), 3-point field goal percentage (.423) and free throw percentage (.866), and ranks seventh in MSU history with 1,316 career points.  She needs just 353 points to become MSU's all-time record-holder.

            Other returning players of note are junior guards Victoria Lucas-Perry and  Rene Haynes, centers Katrina Grantham and Laura Hall, and sophomore forward Maggie Dwyer.  They are aided by a highly touted class of newcomers, including  forwards Aisha Jefferson, Lauren Aitch, and Virginia transfer Alisa Wulff, and guards Jennie Poff and Tiffanie Shives.

            MSU faces 12 NCAA teams from last season, including LSU, Oklahoma, Houston, UCSB, Tennessee, Western Carolina, Rutgers and Maryland, and Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State and Purdue from the Big Ten Conference.  "The ability to face strong competition like Tennessee, Maryland and Gonzaga during the opening weeks of our season will give our team the opportunity to prepare for a strong and competitive Big Ten Conference campaign," says McCallie. "This season we will continue our pursuit of championships.”