Shimmy Write Up

[SluSignGuy]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/st...F4?OpenDocument

Gray brings passion, intensity to SLU

By Tom Timmermann

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

11/17/2005

Shimmy Gray, new women's basketball coach at St. Louis University, approaches everything one way: Intensely. It's been that way as long as she can remember.

"Always," she said. "Always. Always. I was the sort of player you hated to play against, who never shut up, who celebrated everything. That's the way I was watching a game, playing a board game, playing in a rec league game. Everything I do, I need to do it with passion and emotion. Otherwise, why do it?

"I'm very annoying. My friends have said to me, 'Just shut up.' I am who I am. I accept it, embrace it, and go with it."

"She can talk smack with the best of them," said Washington coach June Daugherty, who gave Gray her first Division I job in 2000 as an assistant in Seattle. "We used to have her get out and scrimmage when we were short on personnel. She can talk some smack and get into people's heads."

Gray's knob always seems to be dialed to 10. Nothing is held back. But for someone who hates to lose, Gray, in her first season as a head coach, is facing what could be a very challenging season. She has inherited a team that won four games last season. There will, pretty much assuredly, be far more losses than wins this season. SLU's season, which starts for real on Monday against Weber State in West Pine Gym on campus, is going to be a long one, and not just as measured on a calendar.

"One thing I've learned as the difference between being a player and a coach is that as coaches, the losses stay with you a lot longer and the wins don't stay at all," Gray said. "As a player, if you win a game, you celebrate for two days and if you lose, by the time you get on the bus, you're over it, because there's another game in two days.

"As a coach, if you win, it's great for 10 minutes, then you have to focus on the next game. Sometimes with losses, I've woken up the next morning physically sick or ill. As an assistant, it's difficult. It's twice as difficult as a head coach."

That point was made clear after her one game as a college head coach so far, an exhibition game against Missouri-St. Louis on Nov. 9. The Billikens lost 66-60, shooting poorly, fouling extensively and turning over the ball a lot. She learned lessons not only about her team but about herself.

"I woke up after UMSL, and I was drained," Gray said. "I know now I have to prepare myself and take care of myself. I have to be cognizant it's a long season, a marathon, not a sprint. ... I need to be eating well and I need to start working out again. I can't let myself get run down or get sick. I'm going to be cognizant that there are days where if we don't have practice, I'm going to tell my assistant coaches not to come in, to work at home. I don't want anyone to get burned out. I can't have them get burned out on me. There are times they have to take a day off."

Of course, Gray then admits that she probably won't be taking any days off, but that's her mindset. "I don't know how to pace myself," she said.

Her willingness to run through walls, to do whatever it takes, is not news to her former bosses.

"She's a great motivator," said Arizona coach Joan Bonvicini, Gray's most recent employer. "She was someone who thrived on competition and wanted to be successful."

Daugherty said: "Shimmy understands she has to work her butt off and work 24/7. She's not going into this with a blind eye. She's a tireless worker and she'll work hard on what she has to do to make them the best players they can possibly be. ... She's passionate about helping kids develop."

Will she have to rein in her intensity in what almost certainly will be a tough season?

"I don't think so," Daugherty said. "Even though her role is different and there's a lot more pressure, she has to go back to her value system, which is strong, and let it shine."

So Gray is going into the season looking at more than losses and wins.

"I have to find ways to celebrate other victories that don't come in the form of wins," she said. "If we give the effort we gave against UMSL and play with a lack of intensity, I'll have an issue with that and have a harder time dealing with a loss. If the kids came out and played with passion and intensity and competed, I'll have a real hard time being down."

And yet...

"I'll rip my insides out if we don't get into double figures in wins," said Gray, who was pleased with the way her team played in a recent scrimmage with Maryville. "If I honestly believed we couldn't get double digits in wins, that's one thing. But in my heart, I believe we're capable of that. If not, it will be very frustrating. But I'm not thinking about that."

What she's thinking about now is winning that first game. "It seems like every day my dream-come-true changes," she said. "My dream used to be to get a Division I job, then to become a head coach. Now, my dream come true is to win a game. Then it will be to win an Atlantic 10 championship."

[OrlandoStewart]

Shimmy sounds like she knows what she is doing unlike Pizzotti who was awful. Shimmy said she woulld let tell her assistants to take the day off so they don't get burned out, that is amazing because she is right. Pizzotti never did that, hell she made her senior manager start her showers for her. I hopr shimmy doesn't make her Senior manager do that for her.

[Nate Latsch]

I hope all the people here who bashed Timmermann without even giving him a chance have since sent him a note of apology or thanking him for doing a good job.

If you give the guy a chance, he'll do fine. I've talked to Tom a couple times. He's a nice guy and he's working hard on this beat. You may not see the results yet, because there won't be five stories in the paper every day, but there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes.

- Nate

[Box and Won]

There's a great picture of Shimmy telling the ref to "talk to the hand" along with the article.

[billiken_roy]

apparently you owe mr timmerman money or something nate.

[billiken_roy]

nate, if he is such a good reporter, why is it we have yet to read anything about liddell's injury in the post? my gosh the second most highly acclaimed recruit at slu in 20 years and nothing reported? sorry nate. while he has had a couple of good humanistic pieces the last two weeks, still i would think the number one job of a beat reporter is to report on what is actually happening. plus, for every fine in depth report we have had, we can pull out about 5 that could have been written by 8th graders they are so cold and lacking in information.

btw, i have in fact written him lately to compliment him on those good reports last week, however he doesnt get the complete pass.

[Nate Latsch]

Roy,

I don't owe anything to Tom Timmermann. I just think he's a good guy who will do a good job in this role. I'd like to see the folks on this board give the guy a chance before bashing him at every turn. He was getting bashed on here before the season started because he wasn't writing stories everyday, when he was probably using all his time to work on stories for the preview section.

As for the Liddell injury, I don't know why it hasn't been reported. Maybe the team and coaches aren't talking about it or maybe there is nothing wrong and it's not worth a story.

- Nate

[billiken_roy]

everyday is one thing. 3 in 3 months is another.