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Shalee Lehning Part 3: Career at K-State ends with high accolades

Published 5/14/2009 in Sports

Editor's Note:Final of a three-part series on former Sublette and Kansas State University basketball standout Shalee Lehning.

By BRETT MARSHALL

bmarshall@gctelegram.com

SUBLETTE — It was early July, 2004. Seventeen-year-old Shalee Lehning was making a name for herself in Kansas high school basketball circles with a state 2A championship and unbeaten junior season as shed tried to sort through NCAA Division I recruiting.

Kansas State University was not at the top of the list. Big 12 schools Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Kansas were on the radar for consideration.

"(K-State) had seen me play once and I didn't have a good game," Lehning said. "They had offered other girls scholarships and I guess looking back I got a little bitter, but now I know K-State was doing what they needed."

K-State women's basketball coach Deb Patterson vividly recalls that summer of recruiting.

"We were looking at two or three unbelievably talented guards that year and Shalee was one of those," Patterson says. "There was a bit of difference of opinion on how Shalee would do against elite competition at the national level. I think we as a staff just wanted to be sure. I was pretty sure, but I think coach (Kamie) Ethridge wanted to see how she would do against better players. So I sent her off to Nebraska (for an AAU tournament)."

Ethridge watched Lehning in the Nebraska AAU tournament and quickly phoned Patterson back in Manhattan.

"She said, 'Oh my god, make the call, offer her the scholarship,'" Patterson said. "I was up front with Shalee and told her that we had wanted to see her on the national stage and there was no question we felt like she could play for us."

Lehning shined brightly in that tournament and recalls what transpired after that.

"I got a call from Coach Patterson immediately after the tournament and they offered me a scholarship right then," she says. "It was like, 'no, you didn't recruit me. I'm 17, thinking I'm pretty cool, and then I started talking to them more and I fell in love with the coaches. But I was still upset that they didn't want me at first. But they were genuine and really honest."

The trials of recruiting were so complicated that Lehning visited cross-state rival KU, liked new coach Bonnie Hendrickson, and came home to tell her parents she was going to be a Jayhawk. For a family that bleeds K-State purple it was a difficult pill to swallow.

"We told her that no matter what her decision was that we'd be behind her 100 percent," said Lehning's mother, Jane. "I promptly went to the other room and cried."

Lehning herself says she remembers telling her parents about her decision to go to Lawrence.

"I knew that would be difficult, but then I decided to wait a week and sleep on it," she said. "It was the best thing I could have done. Every time I started to sort through schools, it was like, 'God whopped me up the side of the head and it just seemed like K-State was where I was meant to be."

Within a month of that Nebraska AAU tourney, Lehning had finally made her decision. It was time to tell her parents. She spent a weekend in Wichita with her aunt and said she had made up her mind. Shalee asked her aunt not to tell her mom where she was going.

Kansas State memorabilia on the bed gave it away and Jane cried happy tears this time.

The call to coach Patterson would follow and the K-State mentor remembers it clearly.

"That was the longest month," Patterson said on Lehning's decision. "It was just the greatest feeling in the world."

The summer, though, didn't finish as planned for Lehning. With future teammates Marlies Gipson and Danielle Zanotti, her Kansas Belles team won the National AAU 19-and-under championship. But it came at a price for Lehning. She suffered a knee injury and as she arrived in Manhattan that August, things would come to a halt on the floor.

"She had sore, bloody feet along with the knee injury," Patterson said. "It affected her hamstring and some tendons and she was in pain every single day. She couldn't practice. We shut her down for six weeks."

Lehning says it was a difficult time in her life.

"I'd never really missed anything because of injury or illness," she says. "I was panicked. I was stressed, really nervous. I wanted to get healthy because I was just so excited about being there."

Coming off the bench at the start of the season was not a failure, nor a smashing success. Through the first five games, all wins, Lehning averaged nine points, four assists and five rebounds while playing an average of 20 minutes.

But the fast start for K-State was interrupted by an embarrassing 78-68 loss at home to St. Joseph's (Pa.) in the Commerce Bank Wildcat Classic.

Two days before their next game with longtime power Louisiana Tech at home, Patterson made a critical judgment to put Lehning behind the wheel of the K-State team. Nobody was more surprised than Lehning.

"She called my name out at practice for Group 1 and I had no idea what was going on," Lehning said. "I said, 'whoa, what does this mean?' I thought I was just filling in for practice and that night I called my parents and told them, but I still wasn't sure what would happen at the game."

For her coach, she decided to see what her prized freshman would do as a starter.

As is her customary tradition, Patterson waited until game day at Bramlage to let the team know her starting lineup for that December 6 contest. The words were voiced, "Group 1 -- Shalee, you're in!"

"My eyes just got big, my heart rate was pounding," Lehning sid. "It was so cool because I don't usually get nervous. I got nervous that game, but ever since I don't. I spend time to be prepared and I'm either ready or not. I thought at that moment, 'Oh my, are you sure about this?' I knew this was my chance and said, 'let's go after it.'"

And she did.

Lehning would play the entire 40 minutes in a 77-66 victory over the Lady Techsters. She scored nine points and handed out eight assists, but she grabbed 20 rebounds, tying a school record.

"She's the answer," Patterson said remembering the game. "There would never be any question until Shalee Lehning graduated that she had assumed the leadership role of this team and it was going to be her program. She elevated the level of play of every other player."

The Wildcats won 24 games that season. They would miss out on an NCAA tournament invitation, but in the Women's National Invitation Tournament, K-State blew through the field, winning all four games, including a 77-65 victory over Marquette in the championship before a capacity crowd of 13,350 at Bramlage Coliseum.

"I remember coach P texting me and telling me that the game was sold out," Lehning said. "I just said, 'Get your mind right. Oh my, this was cool."

Lehning responded in the game with her first triple-double. She scored 14 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out 10 assists in 40 minutes.

Heading into her sophomore campaign, Lehning was once again at the helm of the team boat. After a 12-0 start, Gipson went down with an injury and the team suffered through a nine-game losing streak during the Big 12 schedule.

The season concluded 19-15. Lehning was now headed into the final half of her college career not sure what would be on the horizon for her and her teammates.

"We worked so incredibly hard before our junior season," Lehning says. "We were just a bunch of average girls, not a bunch of high school All-Americans, but we were a team."

After a sluggish start, Lehning and her teammates stormed through Big 12, finishing 13-3 in the conference with a regular season Big 12 championship.

"We shocked the world," Lehning said. "Nobody gave us a chance. It was so awesome."

Lehning earned All-Big 12 first team honors. And it paved the way for her final year as a Wildcat.

On Dec. 30, at the University of Washington, Lehning finished with another triple-double, 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. It was her fourth triple-double of her career. From there, though, her senior year spiraled out of control.

"It was early January right when we got back," Lehning said. "I was so tired, but I wasn't doing anything but practicing, sleeping, and hanging out. We weren't in class yet. I even had trouble sleeping at nights, but I just thought it was some of the stress going with everything my last season."

Even Patterson noticed the difference in the early weeks of January.

Finally, Lehning, bowled over on the sideline at practice, told Patterson that she was having trouble breathing.

"Something's not right," Lehning said. "We called the doctor, set up an appointment, he checked me out and said I was fine. I told him that I wasn't fine. So they decided to do a blood test."

Lehning had mononucleosis. When Patterson was told, she immediately called Lehning.

"The phone call to Shalee was an emotionally bad time," Patterson said. "I wanted to be strong for her. There were a lot of questions."

For Lehning, the news was both a relief and devastating.

"She told me I had mono and I just started crying," Lehning said. "I didn't know what it meant. They shut me down. It was awful. I'd never missed a game.."

Her last game before the mono was discovered came on Feb. 7 at nationally-ranked Baylor.

When she returned 18 days later at Nebraska, she didn't start. She played just 14 minutes and was held scoreless.

Four days later was a day that Lehning will never forget. And a game that she would like to.

Another Big 12 powerhouse -- Texas A&M -- came to Bramlage for a Sunday tipoff. Lehning was to be recognized that day with the retirement of her jersey along with former KSU greats Tammy Romstad and Priscilla Gary.

"When I saw the jersey going up, I think I finally realized what this all meant," Lehning said. "It was pretty amazing, I just looked and thought, 'this is so cool.' I would never have dreamed anything like this could ever happen."

For her parents, it was a moment to cherish. As it was for her older brother, Matt.

"After the game, I walked up to her, gave her a hug and told her how proud I was of her," Matt said. "It was the first time I'd ever told her that."

With her legacy intact, there was still work to do. K-State had Big 12 games remaining and hopes of making the NCAA Tournament were on the line.

Three days later and a little healthier, Lehning and her team knocked off 15th-ranked Texas, 66-50, in their final home game of the season.

Three days after that, the Lady 'Cats flew into Denver and took the short bus ride to Boulder to face Colorado.

In a 71-61 triumph, Lehning was spectacular with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists. It was her fifth career triple-double, tying her for third on the all-time collegiate list. It was her third of the season.

There would be four more games to close out her stellar career. Two came in the Big 12 postseason tourney where they went 1-1 and then the NCAA where they advanced to the second round before being eliminated by Vanderbilt. Lehning and her team compiled a 25-8 record. It was the best of her four years and K-State finished with a 90-43 overall record during her four years.

Her career closed with statistics that may never be matched. They say that records are meant to be broken, but Patterson believes her totals of points (1,189), rebounds (914) and assists (800) might never be equaled as a combination.

"There's never been a point guard that was so versatile," Patterson said "She's a great story because she didn't play with a 6-4 or 6-3 post player and she never reached a Final Four. There will never be another Shalee Lehning."

On April 9 she was selected as the No. 25 draft pick by the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association. She leaves Friday for Atlanta where preseason training camp begins Sunday.

"It was amazing," Lehning said of draft night. "I got the goose bumps when it happened. Everything I had worked for had paid off. It made a dream come true that nobody thought I would do, even me at times, I didn't know."

The celebration that night was shared with her college coach and teammates. Phone calls to family and friends followed. And, yet, with all the fame, all the honors, all the records, she remains grounded in who she is.

"My family is just the most important thing to me," Lehning said. "Their support, and unconditional love, has meant the world. They're the reason I am who I am. Andrea and Matt, I watched and learned from them.

"They're my role models. My parents are more unique than any people I know and they've been my strongest supporters. I wouldn't be here today without their total love and support. It's always been about family and friends and faith with me. God has put me here for a purpose, and I just want to give as much to others as I've been given."

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