Hard Work Pays For Schultz Lakeside Coach Builds Winning Program From Ground Up

The usual group of well-wishers gathered outside the locker room to wait for Lisa Schultz to emerge.

One eager-looking fellow just wanted to shake Schultz’s hand, as if some of her success would thereby spread to him.

Many milling about were parents of Lakeside girls basketball players, still stunned that the Eagles had defeated previously unbeaten Newport after losing to them by 14 points three weeks earlier.

But also in the crowd was a local girls basketball coach, one who has had his share of wins at big and small schools alike. Scouting Lakeside or Newport wasn’t his reason for attending the game.

“I want to become better at my job,” the young coach said. “And I can’t think of a better way than by watching Lisa Schultz coach.”

Coaching isn’t a passive activity with Schultz involved. She stands for much of the game, directing Lakeside’s patented press as a conductor would cue the horn section. She exhorts. She congratulates.

And she plans. Boy, does she plan.

Well before last year’s state tournament, Schultz started preparing for top-ranked Elma. She devised schemes that might counterattack a team accustomed to triple-digit scoring and 70-point winning margins.

What Elma did about Lakeside can only be imagined. But after the state quarterfinal, a 71-63 Lakeside win, Elma coach Greg Hardie said he’d had no reason to concoct a new plan for Lakeside.

Schultz, standing down the hallway from Hardie for postgame interviews, said Elma had the best group of athletes any of her teams had seen.

It took Lisa Schultz seven years to transform Lakeside from pushover to state champion. Her first Eagles team, without a senior on its roster, finished 0-14. Her third Eagles team qualified for the State A tournament.

Lakeside has been a fixture at state tournaments since, having placed seventh or better for four consecutive seasons. The capping moment came last March, when Lakeside won the State 2A title.

The Eagles will attempt to rake in trophy No. 5 at this week’s State 2A tournament, which begins Wednesday at Yakima’s SunDome.

But Lisa (Comstock) Schultz never set out to become a leader of young women or role model for area coaches.

Her first major in college was recreation management. Schultz said she pictured herself graduating from Eastern Washington University and working in the corporate world. Her parents, however, watched their daughter’s progress and said, “You’d make a great educator and coach.”

Schultz never played basketball until the eighth grade. It wasn’t until her sophomore year at West Valley when she realized her sport could also mean a ticket to college.

“I started getting some positive feedback at summer camps,” Schultz said. “That’s when the light went on.”

Former EWU coach Bill Smithpeters established an immediate rapport with the fast-talking guard who was named the Frontier League’s most valuable player in 1981. Smithpeters’ recruiting efforts were aided by Schultz’s desire to play close to home, and EWU’s immediate opening at point guard.

Schultz played for the Eagles from 1982 until ‘85, when she was selected MVP of the Mountain West Conference. Among her school records are free-throw percentage for a career (.769), career assists (648) and career steals (212). She also scored 1,336 points.

Schultz played one year of professional ball for Wuppertal, Germany, leading the team in assists and averaging 18 points per game.

“We played four times a week, and it was a long way from home,” Schultz said. “The coach asked me to come back, and even gave me time to think about it.”

Schultz found work instead as an assistant manager at a local health club in 1987. But her parents’ old prediction, that her future was in education, finally started emerging.

Schultz returned to EWU to earn her education certificate. She also served as assistant coach when her alma mater, West Valley, qualified for its first girls state tournament, in 1988.

The experience stoked her competitive spirit. All she needed was the right situation, and the right situation was brewing in Nine Mile Falls.

The new Lakeside High needed someone to build its girls basketball program from the ground up. With support from administrators Larry Guenther and Glen Payne, the school was ripe for success.

The Eagles took early lumps against the Northeast A League. But Schultz installed a summer program and open gymnasium to make winning a long-range goal.

“I didn’t have to share the kids during summer with other coaches,” she said. “The kids were hungry for it. And once we got to state that third year, it caught on like wildfire for the younger kids.”

More than 40 girls, from seventh grade up, played in last summer’s Lakeside program.

“The kids do sacrifice a lot, and I worry about that,” Schultz said. “But if they do choose to sacrifice, they’re hoping something good lies on the other end.”

Schultz attempts to schedule 40 summer games, but she gives the girls August off to be with their families.

Schultz’s family, so far, is her husband Rex and the girls in her program. Rex, an assistant pro at Esmeralda Golf Course, supports Schultz during the winters by taking videos of the team and compiling statistics. She travels with him to tour events in the summer.