Bucknell University Athletics
Schober Approaches Final Season on Hardwood with No Regrets
1/13/2009 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 13, 2009
By Becky Hart, Bucknell Athletic Communications
Some changes can be a good thing. Any change that results in self-improvement and personal growth is even better. Leading up to her career at Bucknell as well as during her four years on campus, senior Lauren Schober has gained the skills necessary to adjust to a number of situations and be successful on and off the basketball court.
The need to adjust began early when as an eight year-old, Schober was told that she likely did not have a future in basketball.
"(One of my third grade coaches) told my mom that basketball was probably not my sport," explains Schober. "I was a two-handed shooter. I didn't start off good, but I guess it is (my sport) because I play now."
Schober obviously stuck with basketball as she and the team transformed into a wealth of talent that continued to play together into high school and on AAU teams.
"There are probably about six to seven girls from that team that play Division I basketball right now, myself included," says Schober. "There's a girl at Illinois State, a girl at DePaul, a girl at New Mexico, a girl at Wake Forest. So there was some pretty good basketball that started from third grade on."
The ability to improve and grow that began at a young age continued over the years and has resulted in the secret to Schober's on-the-court success at Bucknell. At 6 feet tall, the Chicago native recognizes that her size puts her somewhere between being a guard and a forward, serving as a potential detriment to her game. Despite outside opinions, Schober has chosen to use her lack of an obvious position to her advantage and has carved out a unique place on the hardwood for herself.
"I think I'm versatile. That would be a word to describe my game," explains Schober. "People look at it as a disadvantage that I'm too big to play a guard and too small to play post, but I look at it as being versatile because when I'm going up against a guard who is a `guard size,' I'm bigger, I'm stronger, I can outrebound her, I can shoot over her. And when I go up against a post who is bigger than me, I'll probably be quicker than her. I'll be able to shoot better than her. So it's differences that are actually in my favor."
Entering the 2008-09 campaign, Schober was already ranked fifth in career three-point field goals made (102) and fourth in career three-point field goals attempted (329), demonstrating her prowess on the perimeter. With 374 career rebounds, Schober has also shown that she can be effective in the paint.
Seeing her name among Bucknell history-makers such as all-time leading scorer Molly Creamer and Kate Franks is cause for pride for Schober, not because of any notoriety that accompanies being a record-holder, but because of the recognition of hard work that comes with it.
"I know that for the girls that I played with who are included in various things in Bucknell history, it was really important to them and I wanted to be a part of that group," says Schober. "There's a plaque up in Coach (Kathy Fedorjaka's) office that has 1,000-point scorers and 2,000-point scorers, and you look at those girls and know exactly what they went through to get 1,000 points or whatever their goal was. And I want to be able to be that girl on the plaque and 10 years from now, have some player say, `I know how hard it must have been to...' or `I know how hard she had to work to get to that.' I didn't just start making threes randomly. I had to practice. I had to spend extra time in the gym. It's like an acknowledgement of someone's hard work."
A four-year starter at Bucknell, Schober has established herself as a hard-working presence on the court. However, she is entering new territory as a senior as she takes on a greater leadership role with the team. Never afraid to speak her mind, Schober is still finding her leadership style, but she has clear goals for herself and her younger teammates.
"I'm very vocal. Positive or negative, I'll let you know," says Schober. "I like to have my teammates feed off my energy and my excitement. Also, I feel like my basketball IQ is better than some of the other girls' on the team, so I want to help them to get to that point. ... Especially with the freshmen, I want to help them read the program. Do the little things that help them out. If you have a 5 a.m. lift, I wouldn't suggest going to bed at 12. If you can, fit in a little nap before class. Just little things like that that I found out, probably the hard way."
A goal that she shares with all of her teammates, from freshmen up through the ranks to fellow senior Amanda Brown, is to repeat on last season's success. Having had inconsistent results much of the year, the Bison finally made their first four-game run at the end of the season earning the school's second Patriot League Tournament Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance.
"The ending of the season was amazing," says Schober. "Last year, it seemed like sometimes we were losing games that we should have been winning, we won games that we shouldn't have won, we were doing a lot of the little things in the beginning that we didn't necessarily do in previous seasons, and it seemed like everyone was on the same boat.
"I think that season, everything we went through as a team was a confidence booster. Nothing that was ever negative came out of that season," Schober continues. "That's why when we got to the Holy Cross game (in the Patriot League Championship), it was so easy. I remember thinking after the Holy Cross game, `We just won the Patriot League Tournament, and I don't feel like we just played a championship game.' The passing, the defense, the offense and everything just went together because from November to then, we did all the little things and all the important things together."
As the regular season came to a close, the team's confidence grew, and it became clear to the players that Bucknell was putting together the pieces for a championship. After earning the win against Army on senior night, Bucknell went on to take the season's third win over the Black Knights in the opening round of the Patriot League Tournament. The Bison went on to collect victories over American and Holy Cross as Schober, Brown and the recently graduated Kesha Champion were named to the Patriot League All-Tournament Team.
"We went to overtime (in the quarterfinals) with Army, and that was a really hard game. We had just played them a few days earlier," Schober recalls. "They fought to the very last second and it was a great game to watch and great game to play in. I think after that game, you could sense in the locker room and the coaches and the fans, everyone knew (we were going to win). The American girls who were watching the game, they knew that we were going to beat them. It was just that aura that we had. It was that final moment where we said, `We can do this. We've worked too hard not to do it.'"
The wealth of confidence carried the Bison through the championship game at Holy Cross four days later.
"It just (didn't seem) like a championship game because we played so well together," Schober says. "It was the best basketball our team has ever played together, which is what you're supposed to do in the tournament."
Although the Bison lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Schober believes her team learned a lot from the 85-50 loss to North Carolina. Those lessons continue to resonate with this year's squad and result in the kind of improvement Schober has grown accustomed to throughout her career.
"I think it was a really eye-opening experience for myself and Brown and probably some of the seniors at the time, to see how strong those girls (at North Carolina) are and how quick and versatile and everything in between, and knowing `I know I have to do this, this and this during the summer to get to that spot at Bucknell," says Schober. "I can tell in practice and pick-up now and lifting, there are a lot of girls who are a lot more serious about lifting and making sure they're in condition and that's just from seeing the game and seeing the totally different style of play."
As she concludes her time at Bucknell, Schober's attention is not just on basketball. The elementary education major and Patriot League Academic Honor Roll member student taught in a second grade class in Milton this past fall.
"It's so much fun. I love it," says Schober. "I'm so involved. The kids are hilarious. I had a girl in class today. I said, `Does anyone know what a noun is?' And she goes, `I'm not sure what a noun is, but I think my mom has one.' The kids are just so funny and innocent."
Her initial concerns that she had spent nearly four years studying a career she didn't enjoy proved to be like her former coach's prediction that basketball was not for her - false.
"I was so nervous going into it because I was not sure whether I'd be a good teacher or not," Schober explains. "I'm good with kids. I can be a good babysitter, but teaching is a whole different thing. I remember by the fifth day being like, `This is it. I did not waste four years of my life. I am in the correct profession.'"
Following graduation, Schober hopes to continue her education to make herself more marketable in the teaching profession. Her aspirations serve as more proof of someone constantly seeking self-improvement and success in several arenas.
"I want to go back to school for some type of education (degree), either special education or speech pathology, or get K-12 (kindergarten through 12th grade certification), just so I'm more marketable," says Schober. "Also when I'm 40-years-old and I don't want to teach second graders anymore, I can go to the high school level, just to have that versatility."
Looking back at her time at Bucknell, Schober is proud that she will likely be remembered for her status as a basketball player. But what she has enjoyed most and will remember about her alma mater are the relationships she has formed on campus, in an out of basketball. Her involvement in a sorority and with the team has allowed her to create friendships with people whom she doubts she would have met otherwise.
"The teammates I've had have been most of the people who have really shaped who I am as a person," says Schober. "When you're put on a basketball team where a coach decides who's on her team, where they're from, and you really have no say in who comes on the team, you meet people who you maybe never would have met.
"Taylor Phillips is from West Virginia, likes cowboy boots and country music and is really into bizarre shows," Schober says of her sophomore teammate. "She wouldn't have stuck out at me at Bucknell unless I was on the basketball team. I would have missed a great person because of not being able to play basketball. So playing basketball has provided the opportunity to meet really great people and hear interesting stories and have good friends all over the country."
Schober's ultimate goal is to leave the university knowing she has done all she can. That goal shouldn't be hard considering the success she already has had with Bucknell Women's Basketball and in the classroom.
"When my senior day comes, or when I play my last game at Bucknell, (my goal is to) have no regrets," says Schober. "Maybe I can regret some things I did in my sophomore season or my freshman year, but there's nothing I can do about those things. I will have no regrets when it comes down to the end and be satisfied, or more than satisfied, with what I've accomplished."
Note: This story appeared in the 2008-09 fall/winter edition of the Bison Roundup magazine.
