Sports Illustrated recently featured Shoni and Jude Schimmel – the sisters who led the Louisville Cardinals to the NCAA championship game last spring – in its preview edition on women’s college basketball with the headline, The Umatilla Thrillas. The Schimmels were raised on the Confederated Tribes reservation at Mission, and Shoni led Hermiston High School to fourth place and second place finishes in the Oregon 5A State Championships.
From the article:
Even by the standards of Rez Ball—the high-flying, anything-goes brand of hoops seen in Native communities around the country—Shoni’s game dazzled. “She wasn’t just something different for a girl; she was different for this part of the United States,” says Mike Royer, her coach at Hermiston (Ore.) High. Royer initially balked at all that flash in a 14-year-old freshman. “Then I realized the pass she whipped behind her back that split two defenders and hit a teammate in stride was the only way she could deliver the ball right where it was needed,” he says. “People here ate it up.”
Read the full story here:
