Carman-Ainsworth Grad Shaver Pioneering Programs in 2 College Sports
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
August 8, 2023
Alyssa Shaver has made a habit of getting women’s lacrosse programs off the ground.
Her first year in the sport was the first year of the program at Flint Carman-Ainsworth. Her collegiate career involved playing in the inaugural seasons for both University of Detroit Mercy and Lawrence Tech University.
As a coach, she led the first team at Urbana University in Ohio.
When she left Urbana for Lincoln Memorial University, a Division II program in Tennessee, she had an opportunity to take over an established – albeit still relatively new – program.
Two years in, another chance to start a program arose, and she once again stepped up.
However, this was not a different school – but in a different sport.
The 2008 Carman-Ainsworth graduate recently finished her third year in charge of the LMU women’s lacrosse program, and is now preparing for Year 2 in charge of the women’s field hockey program at the school – coaching a sport she had never played and rarely seen.
“I had not watched ‘Ted Lasso’ but when people figured out what I was doing, they told me about it,” Shaver said. “Last fall I started watching it and I was like, ‘Oh God, this is my life right now.’”
Starting with a new sport was how Shaver’s athletic career got jump-started in the first place.
She was a volleyball, basketball and softball player prior to high school, but when her basketball coach brought up the idea of starting a lacrosse program at Carman-Ainsworth, she decided to give it a try. The connection was almost immediate.
“I didn’t know what (lacrosse) was,” she said. “But I put a stick in my hand, and it felt like the most natural thing. I was a point guard in basketball, and I had played basketball since I could walk. I think in lacrosse, the footwork, defense, concepts and ideas are similar to basketball. But when I picked up a stick, it was like, ‘I get to carry this ball around? I don’t have to dribble it?’ From there, it kind of clicked.”
Shaver was a remarkable scorer at Carman-Ainsworth, racking up 226 goals during her four-year career. That included 81 goals her senior season.
While at Carman-Ainsworth, she also continued playing basketball and volleyball.
“As a point guard in basketball, I didn’t really care about scoring,” she said. “In lacrosse, I was really good at offense and scoring. I was a setter in volleyball, so my other sports I was always setting other people up.”
Her success at Carman-Ainsworth and at the club level led to an opportunity to play for U-D Mercy’s new program, led by coach Mary Ann Meltzer. Shaver was an academic all-conference selection during her time there and played for two years before coming back home.
While she was no longer playing, she continued to coach, something she had started while a freshman at Mercy.
It was while coaching a club team that the opportunity to return to playing at Lawrence Tech presented itself.
“It was terrifying,” Shaver said of returning to the game after two years away. “I would play in summer league, and I always had a stick in my hand because I was coaching, but I hadn’t really played competitively. I was 23 and most of my teammates were 18-year-old freshmen. I always joke with them now – some of them are my best friends – but the first couple years, they didn’t want to talk with me and I thought they didn’t like me. It turns out, they were scared of me.”
Shaver played three seasons at Lawrence Tech, earning All-America honorable mention from the National Women’s Lacrosse League in 2014 and first-team NWLL All-America honors in 2015 and 2016. She also was named an All-American by the NAIA as a senior.
Prior to her third season, with Lawrence Tech in need of a coach, Shaver reached out to Meltzer, who had recently retired from U-D Mercy. The two were reunited at LTU, and Shaver and her teammates reaped the benefits, reaching the NWLL championship game, which they lost 9-8 in overtime. Shaver was the NWLL National Offensive Player of the Year.
In 2017, with Shaver on the coaching staff, Lawrence Tech advanced to the NAIA national title game.
“She’s pretty much responsible for a lot of our program at Lawrence Tech,” Meltzer said. “She was the driving force in recruiting kids. She had taken a couple years off, and I think when she came here she was that responsible and was kind of the go-getter in getting players and getting people interested in LTU for quite a while. Fortunately, we’ve done well.”
In 2018, Shaver took over at Lourdes (Ohio), leading the program to its first winning season in her first year.
After two years at Lourdes, she took over Urbana, building the program from scratch. She took over the LMU program prior to the 2021 season. The Lady Railsplitters were 2-5 her first season, but have gone 12-7 and 10-9 in the two seasons since.
Shaver taking over the field hockey program alongside her lacrosse duties wasn’t the original plan. But after things fell through with the coach originally hired for the job, and with some of her lacrosse players signed on to play both as well, the LMU administration turned to her.
“I have a lot of experience with new programs with lacrosse, and the girls were so great and super appreciative,” she said. “My lacrosse players have some experience, and a lot of the field hockey girls were just awesome and understanding, and helping me learn.”
Shaver is learning the game and was able to get some help from volunteer assistant Khotsofalo Pheko, a former runner at LMU who played field hockey in South Africa before coming to Tennessee.
Meltzer has faith in her former player to navigate all of it and find success, even if she told Shaver she was crazy for taking on the field hockey job initially.
“Obviously she has the work ethic, and she’s going to do what she needs to do to be successful,” Meltzer said. “As coaches, especially younger coaches, when things aren’t going well they think that more is better when sometimes less is better. I think she just needs to be patient; we all do. That’s the biggest thing. With her, starting so many programs – we’re all competitive, we all want to be successful really quick – it is going to take time.
“She’s an incredible person. She has a heart of gold.”
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PHOTOS (Top) At left, Alyssa Shaver takes the field for Flint Carman-Ainsworth, and at right she coaches at Lincoln Memorial University. (Middle) Shaver just finished her third season leading LMU women's lacrosse. (Below) Shaver (bottom row, fifth from left) was a four-year player at Carman-Ainsworth, including on this 2007 team. (Photos courtesy of Alyssa Shaver and Lincoln Memorial's athletic department.)
Performance: Cranbrook's Isabelle Scane
June 17, 2017
Isabelle Scane
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood junior – Lacrosse
Already Michigan’s all-time leading high school goal-scorer with a season to play, Scane finished her junior year with seven goals – tying for second most in an MHSAA Final – as Cranbrook Kingswood won in sudden victory 17-16 over reigning champion East Grand Rapids in the Division 2 Final on June 10. Leading the Cranes to their first MHSAA title in the sport, with one of her goals coming in overtime, earned Scane the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week” for June 5-11.
Scane, considered one of the top players in the nation for her age group, finished this spring with 146 goals and 37 assists – the 146 goals were the second most for one season, and her 183 total points came in third in MHSAA history. After three varsity seasons, Scane has 365 goals and 93 assists for 458 career points – she holds the career goals record by 89 and needs only two more points next season to tie the career record in that category.
Cranbrook Kingswood had fallen to East Grand Rapids in the 2015 and 2016 Division 2 Finals, and Saturday’s game also was the last for Cranes coach Greg Courter – making the victory that much sweeter. Scane is the second sibling in her family to win an MHSAA lacrosse title, following older brother James who starred at Birmingham Brother Rice and now plays at Robert Morris University (Pa.) and was a major influence growing up. Also a 4.0 student, Isabelle is committed to sign next school year with national power Northwestern University, where she’s considering majoring in pre-med. And here’s a final fun fact: Like many athletes, Scane has highlights posted on the web service hudl; but unlike probably anyone else, she’s also posted a “Me Missing Shots” collection – a light-hearted sign of her humble perspective as she drives to improve her already-substantial game.
Coach Greg Courter said: “Prior to the season, Inside Lacrosse Magazine had Isabelle rated as the number 14 junior in the country. Personally, I think that that rating is low. Were she playing back east, she would be higher. I have coached 10 girls in my career who went on to become Division I All-Americans. Isabelle is already a better and more complete player than any of them. She is a once-in-a-career talent (for a coach). I have no doubt she will be on the U.S. national team in a few years.”
Performance Point: “It was a long hot game. We were out on the turf and it was 90 degrees and we’re a small team with only a couple of subs, so it got pretty exhausting,” Scane said of the Final, which saw the Cranes trailing 12-5 early in the second half. “It kept us going that it was our last time playing this season, and it pushed us through the exhaustion. … I think it’s awesome. Individual awards are nice, but when it comes down to it, being able to get that (win), to get there and get there as a group when we’ve been so close the last few years, and to finish … I’d say it was probably the most exciting game I’d been part of. To come back and win the state championship, coming back from seven goals down to end up winning it – it was an insane back-and-forth game.”
Sending off Coach with a win: “At least for me and a couple other girls, that was the most exciting part about it. He’s been an amazing coach the last three years. We always believed we could do it, but unfortunately we weren’t able to win for him the last few years. It was awesome to finish off his coaching career with the thing we’ve been pushing toward.”
Growing in the game: “Freshman year, I was a younger player on the team and being new to the program, I wasn’t as physically and mentally tough as I am now. I’ve gotten used to the pressure, and I’m able to keep my head in games, which as a freshman I wasn’t able to do. I think the mixture of experience and my coach, he’s always been there to kinda help me figure out how to keep my head in the game mentally, keep working when things aren’t looking as great as they should. The way he’s coached us, the way we practice, he’s done a nice job of it.”
Makes and misses: “You shouldn’t ever be satisfied with how you achieved. If you become satisfied, think you’re better than everyone, think you’re big enough, that’s when you stop getting bigger. It’s necessary to stay humble, to work toward getting better than who you are.”
No rush: “We had only two seniors this year, and I’d love to keep working with the team we have now, keep pushing for another state championship. I’m committed to go play in college, and I would like to continue playing at a higher level. (But) I definitely need to finish off high school – I’d like to keep how well we’re doing, get a state championship for the girls in our class and the girls below, but I also have new stuff coming and I want to keep working toward that so I do well there. I’ve always been told not to rush through high school, so I want to be sure to finish off one last year at Cranbrook.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2016-17 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2016-17 honorees:
June 8: Hunter Eichhorn, Carney-Nadeau golf – Read
June 1: Grace Stark, White Lake Lakeland track & field – Read
May 25: Brendon Gouin, Gaylord golf – Read
May 18: Hannah Ducolon, Bay City All Saints softball – Read
May 11: Mason Phillips, Salem track & field – Read
May 4: Lillian Albaugh, Farwell track & field – Read
April 27: Amber Gall, Shepherd track & field – Read
April 20: Sloane Teske, East Grand Rapids tennis – Read
March 30: Romeo Weems, New Haven basketball – Read
March 23: Jaycie Burger and Maddie Clark, Pittsford basketball – Read
March 16: Camden Murphy, Novi swimming & diving – Read
March 9: Ben Freeman, Walled Lake Central wrestling – Read
March 2: Joey Mangner, Chelsea swimming & diving – Read
Feb. 23: Isabelle Nguyen, Grosse Pointe North gymnastics – Read
Feb. 16: Dakota Hurbis, Saline swimming & diving – Read
Feb. 2: Foster Loyer, Clarkston basketball – Read
Jan. 26: Nick Jenkins, Detroit Catholic Central wrestling – Read
Jan. 19: Eileene Naniseni, Mancelona basketball – Read
Jan. 12: Rory Anderson, Calumet hockey – Read
Dec. 15: Demetri Martin, Big Rapids basketball – Read
Dec. 1: Rodney Hall, Detroit Cass Tech football – Read
Nov. 24: Ally Cummings, Novi volleyball – Read
Nov. 17: Chloe Idoni, Fenton volleyball – Read
Nov. 10: Adelyn Ackley, Hart cross country – Read
Nov. 3: Casey Kirkbride, Mattawan soccer – Read
Oct. 27: Colton Yesney, Negaunee cross country – Read
Oct. 20: Varun Shanker, Midland Dow tennis – Read
Oct. 13: Anne Forsyth, Ann Arbor Pioneer cross country – Read
Oct. 6: Shuaib Aljabaly, Coldwater cross country – Read
Sept. 29: Taylor Seaman, Brighton swimming & diving – Read
Sept. 22: Maggie Farrell, Battle Creek Lakeview cross country – Read
Sept. 15: Franki Strefling, Buchanan volleyball – Read
Sept. 8: Noah Jacobs, Corunna cross country – Read
PHOTO: (Top) Cranbrook Kingswood's Isabelle Scane works to find an opening during the Division 2 championship game against East Grand Rapids. (Middle) Scane closes in on a possible shot; she scored seven goals in the win.