I think we all have those moments when reading something that the thought, "Holy moly, that's incredible!" immediately comes to mind.
One of those moments came for me last week as I started putting together our Local Digest. As I looked over a fax from results of the Shepherd eighth-grade girls basketball team's Starved Rock Conference Tournament semifinal win over Peru, I noticed at the bottom of the page in the notes box "Coach Shymanski's 500th career win."
I had to find out more, so I meet up with Craig Shymanski — his team currently 17-3 this season — after practice Wednesday to chat about his coaching resume that started as an 18-year-old in 1993 at Wallace Grade School, included a six-year stint as the Ottawa High School freshman boys coach and the current 397-129 mark in 20 years guiding the Lady Rams. Shymanski's Shepherd teams have captured 10 SRC championships, 11 IESA regional titles, including a sectional crown and Sweet 16 appearance.
"I have never scored one point in any of these games ... before every game I think about how blessed I am to have the opportunity to coach all the kids I've been able to coach," Shymanski said as we chatted in the coaches' office at Shepherd. (He needed to be talked into noting his accomplishment by fellow coaches and parents.) "I believe we have a pretty good reputation across the area of being a program that plays good, solid defense. We may not have always have the most talented or athletic group, but opponents know if they beat us, they earned it.
"I'll admit it, I'm hard on the kids and not easy to play for, but I also want to get the best out of them, not just for me but for themselves. Whether they loved me or hated me at the time I coached them, they bought into the system and believed in me. They all know, I may pull you out of the game and chew you out, but I'll also give you a hug and put you right back in the game once my point is made.
"We have had a lot of success here at Shepherd, and it has everything to do with how hard the kids work. This is the primary start for a lot of them with the game of basketball, where they learn the basics and of life to a certain degree. There's something special about seeing kids you coached years later and know how great they are doing."
Like any coach that reaches such a milestone, the first questions that comes to mind is: How did coaching become something you wanted to do, and who influenced you?
"When I was a kid, friends and I would be out playing basketball to a certain time, then maybe play baseball the rest of the day, and I went to so many high school games. I remember a day when one of my parents took me to Winners Circle here downtown, and all I wanted was a coaching board ... yep, a kid buying a coaching board. The only one they had left was one for soccer, but I didn't care," said Shymanski, who says he idolized Indiana coach Bobby Knight, not for his antics, but what he stood for and that Knight was nearing 500 wins right around the time he started at Wallace. He remembers thinking that would be a cool accomplishment to shoot for.
"When we would be out playing, I'd call time out and draw something up. I guess I just always wanted to be a coach."
Shymanski, who teaches seventh- and eighth-grade social studies, says he could only try to mention how many different coaches have helped him along the way, but says each one had something different that he has taken with him.
"My very first year coaching I was an assistant under TJ Lewis at Wallace, and I worked with the players that didn't make the team. Lewis taught me how to coach, the structure and Xs and Os, and later Mark Cooper taught me how to run an all-together program," said Shymanski, who also mentioned guys like Milton Pope's Tom Grady, as well as Ottawa greats Gary Vancil, Dave Wultzen and Dean Riley. "I still reach out to the high school coaches here in town and find out what they want us to do and what they want us to run. If Ottawa's half-court man-to-man is called "52" then that's what we call it here.
"We want the kids to be as prepared as much as they can on and off the floor when they leave here.
"That's what I feel coaching is all about, and that's what motivates me to do it."