Jude Schimmel

Basketball standout in college, Jude Schimmel is an unusual young woman, thoughtful and mature beyond her years. Her life story is inspirational to thousands of young women, especially Native American youth. You can see why young people light up around Jude. She tells them, in short, clear, punchy declarative sentences, how she did it. And in the second half of the book, she tells her life lessons, in order to encourage other young people to succeed too, rehearsing key concepts like integrity, work ethic, personal health and the like. She also takes the time to write a sweet essay singing the praises of Native American culture in general. Jude Schimmel is an admirable person.

Jude’s story fits, with a few tugs and pulls, into a classic American success story of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. Learning what’s right and wrong from mom and dad, working your butt off, dreaming big and a little native stubbornness were Jude’s road to athletic and academic success at the University of Louisville. Always being in the shadow of big sister Shoni doesn’t seem to bother Jude at all. Far from sibling rivalry, she clearly adores her sister and may go to work for her once she gets her master’s degree from Louisville.

Of course, Jude’s story deviates from the Jack Armstrong all-American success because she is Native American and spent her early years on the remote Umatilla Reservation in Oregon. Jude has nothing but fondness, though, for her rez days and her Native upbringing.

On her life on the Umatilla res: “Reservation life was extremely simple and comfortable to my family and me. On my reservation everyone knew everyone else. There really wasn’t such a thing as a stranger.”

Jude is one of eight siblings of a Native American mother and white father. Both parents were good athletes, though it is clear Jude gets her drive and determination from her mother, who picked up the family and moved it to urban Portland to take a coaching job and push her talented daughters into the way of big-time players like Candace Parker and scouts from colleges all over the country (Jude ended up getting 25 scholarship offers). Despite the family house getting foreclosed on, Jude in her senior year averaged 28.4 points per game. Here’s a telling trait for Jude–despite her slight size, her favorite sport was volleyball.

Jude has spoken to more than 40 tribes across the country to deliver her message of hope and inspiration to Native kids. In a nutshell, here’s Jude’s formula, “I simply was raised right, worked hard in school and on the court, and gave back everything I could to my Native American people.”