Strong presence

It’s another year, another role for Riki Schiermeister.

The University High School junior basketball player is in her third year as a member of the Titan varsity. And for the third straight year, she has a new set of responsibilities.

“When I was a freshman, I was just another body that could fit into the mix,” Schiermeister said. “Last year I spent much of the year trying to get back from a knee injury. This year I’m starting and playing outside for the first time.”

Schiermeister is a 5-foot-9 wing this year, averaging just under 10 points a game while playing alongside her sister, freshman Dakota, who has settled in as the team’s point guard.

A left-hander with a sweet outside shot, Schiermeister scored a season-high 18 points in the season opener with North Central and has scored in double figures in half of her team’s 10 games.

“We’ve asked Riki to play outside this season, and when the situation calls for it, to give us an outside scoring threat to help open things up inside for Angie (Bjorklund) and Dara (Zack),” University coach Mark Stinson said. “Like most left-handers, she has a really pretty shot from out there.”

The key to Schiermeister’s game, though, is mental.

“Riki is probably the most intelligent player I’ve ever had at U-Hi,” Stinson said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had to repeat anything to her. You tell her once and she has it down.”

Schiermeister made a big splash at U-Hi as a freshman. Not only did she earn significant playing time on the basketball varsity, she started in softball as well.

“I learned a lot by playing with that team,” she said. “I watched how seniors like Jami Bjorklund played the game and how hard they worked to make themselves ready to play. And they really made me feel like I was part of that group. They even threw a surprise birthday party for me. They showed up at my house unannounced and pretended to be mad at me for missing a practice. But instead, they took me out to celebrate my birthday.”

She started the summer of her sophomore year playing both summer softball and playing AAU summer basketball. She ended it, however, on crutches after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.

“I was playing in a summer game and drove the baseline,” she explained. “I got knocked off balance just a little bit and I felt it go pop.”

Surgery was successful, and by the time the Titans reached postseason, Schiermeister was once again an integral player off the bench.

“When you have an injury like that, it stays in the back of your mind,” she said. “You’re worried that you can get hurt again. But you just have to forget about it and not think about it and just play the game as hard as you can.

“At first I wore a brace on the knee, but I worked hard to get to the point where I could take it off.’

This year, without the brace, she runs the floor gracefully and plays defense with abandon.

And with the addition of her younger sister, there’s a toughness in the siblings that surprised Stinson.

“They’re both really tough players,” he said. “You don’t usually see that in girls who don’t have an older brother or two around.”

Schiermeister laughs.

“I guess maybe we get that from knocking heads,” she said. “We try to play one-on-one against each other around the house, but those games only last about five minutes. Someone always goes away mad.”

Schiermeister said she hasn’t had to offer advice to Dakota to help her fit into the team’s starting lineup.

“I think she’s learned a lot just watching,” she said. “I haven’t had to say too much to her, but we’re there to help each other out. We have the kind of relationship where we can always offer each other constructive criticism without either one of us taking it personally.”

And, she said, it helps to have had the Bjorklund sisters, Jami and Angie, as role models.

“I just look forward to carrying on the tradition they’ve helped establish,” she said.