By Shannon Herfeuincsr
Senior staff writer
What a sight it must have been to
' watch the mild-mannered Lisa
Reitsma, a three-time All-American for
the Nebraska vol
leyball team,
catching and
throwing elbows
in the paint during
the fust day of the
NU women’s bas
ketball team Is pre
1 season practice. |
If, before her
_ u_ one-year stint
RittMM with the NU
women’s basketball team began three
weeks ago, Reitsma didn’t realize the
physical pounding college basketball
players endure on a daily basis, she
does now.
Reitsma, a 6-foot-4, three-year
starter who completed her volleyball
eligibility last fall, received a crash
course in toughness that first week of
basketball practice.
Bruises dotted her arms and legs.
Both toenails on her big toes fell off. A
nasty shiner developed below one eye.
“When I told people I was going to
try basketball for a year, some were
like, ‘What are you doing?’” Reitsma
said. “Sometimes, I wondered myself.
But it has been worth it This will be a
great experience.”
The game of basketball humbles
Reitsma, one of the most decorated vol
leyball players ever at NU. She has
gone from a star in one sport to a role
player in another. An instinctive and
intelligent player at the volleyball net,
she sometimes feels lost in foe paint
But she has contributed in the
Comhuskers’two exhibition wins. In
her first game for NU on Nov. 3,
Reitsma grabbed nine rebounds and
scored four points in 19 minutes. And
Sunday in a 71-42 win over Shelen
(Russia), she posted six rebounds and a
blocked shot
“The first game, I was like a fish
out of water” said Reitsma, a Best-team
all-state selection five years ago at
Iowa’s Hull Western Christian High
School *T feh real jittery. It was a ner
vousness that I hadn’t felt since my
freshman year of volleyball”
As days go by, however, Reitsma
said she grows more comfortable with
her new sport. It seems like such a long
time ago that the idea of play mg basket
ball even popped into her head.
It was Husker Volleyball Coach
Tory Pettit who suggested to Reitsma
last spring that she take some time away
from volleyball and play basketball for
a year. Pettit already had spoken to
Nebraska Women’s Basketball Coach
Paul Sanderford about the possibility,
and the idea appealed to Reitsma.
She liked the idea of staying in
school to complete her degree instead
oftrainingfortheUS. National Team.
Reitsma also was feeling the after
effects of a mentally taxing senior vol
leyball season. Her status as a returning
All-American and the only senior on
the team during the 1997 season forced
Reitsma into a leadership role that
«-—
The first game, I was like a fish out of
water. I felt real jittery. It was nervousness
that I hadn’t felt since my freshman year of
volleyball.”
LisaReitsma
NU basketball player
didn’t suit her shy, laid-back demeanor.
• To add to her frustration, injuries to
key players hurt the volleyball team’s
chances at a third-straight trip to the
NCAA Final Four; and a second-place
Big 12 Conference finish translated
inton disappointing season.
“Both Coach Pettit and I knew that
I needed a rest,” Reitsma said. *1 don’t
think I realized before the season how
tough it was going to be cm me mental
ly to be the only senior on the team.
Coach Pettit wanted me to step up and
be a leader vocally and mentally
because we had a young team, and
thatfc what we needed. But it was hard
forme.
“There are some things I wish I
could do over. That last year was defi
nitely the hardest of the my fow years.”
Which is why Reitsma has found
exactly what she needed with the
women’s basketball team. Sanderford
defined her role early-Reitsma knows
she is on the team to rebound and play
defense. And Sanderford says Reitena
has the potential to fill that role well
“Reitsma is a freshman in the fact
that she hasn’t played in four years, but,
at the same time, shek a senior in matu
rity and her mental approach to the
game,” Sanderford said.
“She’s been a real pleasure to have
in the program. She’s an intelligent
young lady. She’s very focused and
very committed.”
Reitsma’s dedication has
impressed her teammates. NU guard
Brooke Schwartz said Reitsma Mends
in.
“There are so many little things at
this level she needs to learn,” Schwartz
said. “But if she had been in the system
for four years, she would be an All
American”
Schwartz’s compliment and others
like it from her new teammates have
relieved Reitsma, who was unsure of
how die Huskers would react to her
experiment
“I didn’t want them to think I
thought that I was some big volleyball
player who was going to come in and
take over the team,” Reitsma said. “I
wanted them to know I would try to
help in whatever way I could.”
Nee stands
by method
of coaching
NEE from page 13 _
ting in-state talent slip away. But toe tal
ent pool, Williams said, isn’t that deep.
“We don’t live in a hotbed of tal
ent,” Williams said. “We have to go into
other peoples’ bade yards to get talent”
Lincoln Northeast graduate Mike
Hahn, Nebraska’s Mr. Basketball in
1998, said he dkbi’t receive a phone call
from Nee until die end of his season.
Hahn went to Pacific.
But don’t think Nee has anything
against Nebraska or die Midwest
He cites living in Lincoln as one of
the assets of coaching at Nebraska,
despite openly discussing the
possibility of leaving on more dun one
occasion. ,
The most recent instance came in
April 1997, when Nee announced on a
radio show that he was interested in an
opening at Rutgers.
He didn’t get the job, and while
most fans were calling for Neeb bead,
Byrne, as always, backed him.
“I’d much rather have a coach that a
lot of people are interested in,” Byrne
said.
IfNee had it to do all over again, he
said, he would have kept it quieter.
But then again, communication is
the key to Neeb world. \
“I’m honest,” Nee said. “I’m frank.
I don’t lie. I’m not (Bill) Clinton. I don’t
have anything to worry about”
Huskers’Mshammar leads life by her own code
' • ^ '•••'' • V-- ,ir- ‘ ‘ - *• jy- ■ •
DIVA from page 16
homeland.
In Lincoln, she’s just another
University ofNebraska-Lincoln student
majoring in advertising. That, and one
of the best swimmers in the world.
Out of nowhere
Alshammar started swimming
when she was 4 years old. The pedigree
was in the family as her mother, Britt
Marie S., swam in the 1972 Olympics in
Munich, Germany. Alshammar credits
her mother for introducing her to the
. sport at an early age.
The talent has always been there for
Alshammar; the desire has not At age
12, she was ready to quit
“Swimming’s such a boring sport,”
Alshammar said. “I mean it realty is. I
was just tired of it I don’t know what
was wrong with me, but my mother kept
me in it”
By 14, Alshammar won at the
Swedish nationals and had figured out
she was good. So good, in fact, she never
really had to go to practice. When she
did, she said, it ijsually wasn’t on time.
Before coming to Nil, Alshammar’s
primary event was the backstroke. It’s
an event that took her all the way to die
1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where, at 18,
she finished 16th in 100-meter back
stroke. However, that pretty much ended
Alshammar’s backstroke career.
“I was so sick of the backstroke,”
Alshammar said. “I swam bad at the
Olympics. Not exactly bad, but I could
have done better.”
At the 1997 Australian
Championships, Alshammar won in the
50-meter freestyle, an event she didn’t
have much experience in. Her new forte
was bom.
Before she even arrived at
Nebraska, Alshammar finished third at
the 1997 World Championships in the
50-meter freestyle and eighth in the
100-meter free.
“We recruited her in the back
stroke,” said Keith Moore, an NU assis- •
tant coach and head of the Comhusker
sprint program. “But she performed so
well in freestyle. It just came out of
nowhere.”
Alshammar agreed.
r .. , - .
“It was like, ‘Oh, I can do (the
freestyle) and backstroke once in a
while for fun,”’ she said.
Alshammar arrived at Nebraska
largely because of NU swimmer and
best friend Destiny Lauren. Lauren, also
from Sweden, convinced Alshammar to
come to Nebraska after spending two
years in Lincoln.
As a freshman for the Huskers,
Alshammar was strong in both the
freestyle and backstroke, becoming an
All-American in seven events. She was
part of NU’s NCAA runner-up 800
yard freestyle relay, while her bek indi
vidual finish was a tie for ninth in the
50-yard free - a finish that left both
Alshammar and Moore disappointed.
“I think she could have done better,”
Moore said. “I think she can be the bek
in the nation - in the world She has that
kind of talent”
There might be a reason why she
isn’t die best in the world.
She who defies
In the last 30 meters of a 50-meter
freestyle sprint, Alshammar might be
the fakest swimmer in the world. Both
Moore and Alshammar believe that
The problem is the start
It’s an “old-style” start, Alshammar
said. One that her mother taught her. To
Moore, it’s not “mechanically sound.”
“I’m watching the World
Championships where she finished
third, and after 20 meters, she’s dead
last,” Moore said. “And she starts pass
ing everybody. I couldn’t believe what I
was seeing.
“If she can get a good start, it will be
hard to beat her in the water.”
Whether or not Alshammar will
adhere to that start is another question.
Coaches can advise, teachers can
instruct, and others can criticize, but in
the end, Alshammar will do what she
wants to do.
“The quality I see in her is defiant,”
Svensson said. “SJje’s unconventional
and a bit shy in saying what she thinks is
right” .
Said Moore: “Therese expresses her
opinion. I express mine. We have differ
ences in opinion. We had a difference
last week. That’s all part of a coach-ath
lete relationship.”
Alshammar doesn't deny that shefe
independent, strong-willed, even stub
born. She does understand change can
be good. It just comes with a condition
attached.
, “I love change,” Alshammar said. “I
love it But I like my changes, not some
one’s else’s.”
Self-proclaimed goddesses can be
like that
Diva
The tattoo on Alshammar’s lower
back aptly describes her personality, or
at least Alshammar’s perception of it
It’s big, black and reads: “Diva.”
A Latin word, Diva means “god
dess .” It’s what Alshammar believes she
is.
“I think I aril a goddess, yes,”
Alshammar said. “I have so much more
strength inside me than I do in my mus
cle mass.
ar?_•_j j •
xjvciy wumrni id a guuucss, in a
way. I hope they see that”
How Alshammar got the name Diva
isn’t quite as high-minded. It goes back
to her early swimming days in Sweden
when she would skip practice and still
win.
“They would kid me and say, ‘Oh,
you think you’re some big f***ing diva,
don’t you?’” Alshammar said. “Itfc kind
of ironic how I got the tattoo.”
Divas, Alshammar said, do what
they want to do, regardless of the risk.
And Alshammar’s done plenty of risky
tilings
There was the time Alshammar
went topless in downtown Lincoln,
while Lauren took pictures. Alshammar
wasn’t completely naked; she had silver
paint on.
Her coach, Moore, got to hear that
via his wife, Jodi.
“My wife was working downtown
at the time, and she tells me about some
crazy woman with no top on.and silver
paint,” Moore said. “I told her, ‘Oh
yeah, that was Therese.
“‘But she doesn’t do things that are
that extravagant a lot...’”
Moore pauses.
“Well... there’s this,” Moore said,
pointing to a picture of Alshammar on
his office wall. “See this?”
He points to a picture of her holding
• -» -
the NCAA runner-up trophy for Nil's
800-yard relay team. Seems normal
enough.
Wait a minute. Is she licking the tro
phy?
“Yep,” Moore said. “Now under
stand, that’s the runner-up trophy for the
NCAA Championships. And she’s lick
ing the trophy. That Is Therese.”
When told about the trophy,
Alshammar denied it
“I didn’t!” Alshammar said. “I don’t
remember that!”
Oh, but Therese, you did.
“Well, I probably did,” Alshammar
said. “It sounds like something I would
do.
“But I don’t do
crazy things in
Lincoln,” Alsham
mar said. “If I ever
did something that I
thought was crazy,
people would have
heart attacks.”
But there is one
thing Alshammar
won’t say, won’t do.
And it has to do with
the thing she wants
most
T /tntnncr ahoatt
There are 12 indi
vidual gold medals in women’s swim
ming to be won at the2000 Olympics in
Sydney, Australia. Alshammar’s not
greedy; she wants only one of them.
And she would give up the awards,
the celebrity status - all but her health
and happiness - to get it But she won’t
guarantee a victory in any event in
which she might compete. That, it
seems, is even too outrageous a notion
for Alshammar.
Hell, she’d even be happy with a sil
ver or bronze, she said.
Strange, really. Alshammar’s so
confident about everything else - her
looks, her attitude, her place in the world
- a gold medal prediction would seem to
fall inline/
But it doesn’t And Alshammar has
a hard time explaining why when
asked.
“Winning the Olympics?”
Alshammar said. “Um... I... cause... I
... well... OK.”Alshammar breaks the
stare. She looks away.
“I won’t say I’m gping to come '
home with a gold medal,” Alshammar
said. “Because then people are going to
say, ‘Oh, you only came home with a
bronze.’And that’s not bad at all.”
She doesn’t like to talk about her
goals - especially the Olympic ones.
But others can.
. “I think she’s good enough to do it,”
Moore said. “She has to stay away from
injury, but she can be right there.”
Right now, Alshammar isn’t there.
She’s 22nd in the world in 50-mete- free,
one of her best events. She doesn’t
know who’s first and
she doesn’t care. She
said she’ll be ready
for anyone.
A1 sham mar said
she knows how to
prepare for big races.
And if she doesn’t
win in 2000, there’s
the 2001 World
Championships.
Maybe the 2004
Olympics in Athens,
Greece.
And after that,
Alshammar plans to
KamIt /vm Atim«»4o
and celebrity she has
garnered so far. Modeling, she said, is a
possibility. Better yet, Alshammar
would like to start her own fashion busi
ness.
“To make a fashion line or design
clothes — that’d be all right with me,”
Alshammar said. “I want to make
myself a name. A big name.”
Don’t believe her? That’s fine. Tell
her so. Maybe She’D listen. But first,
you’ll have to look Therese Alshammar
down. Otherwise, forget about it
“I know people are looking at me,”
Alshammar said. “Around campus, and
in Sweden, I know I’m noticed All the
time. Some of them look at me like I’m
self-absorbed.
“But people, sometimes they won’t
look in you or look you in the eye.
They’re giving off badharma, bad
vibes. I don’t pay attention to them. 1
think it’s kind of funny, because %
proves that I’m a better person.”*
«-%
If I ever did
something that I
thought was crazy,
people would have
heart attacks.”
Thebese Alshammar
NU swimmer