Shaffer playing big for Laurel

By Corey J. Corbin
New Castle News

Laurel High’s Ellen Shaffer always is working on her game.

Whether it’s attempting to extend her shot, working to improve her individual defense in the paint or trying to become a better ball-handler, the 5-foot-10 junior forward always is looking for ways to get better and help her team win.

“You can ask coach, I’m really hard on myself,” Shaffer said. “My defense isn’t that strong. Coach always gets on me to work on my defense. I need to work on my ball-handling more. I’ve always been taller than everyone else, so I haven’t had to dribble much, but I do need to work on that.”

Scoring and rebounding have never been an issue for the Lady Spartans’ standout. Shaffer has surpassed the 20-point plateau five times in her career — once each as a freshman and a sophomore and three times this season — and has reached double figures in 25 of 44 career games.

She set a career high with 28 points and 16 rebounds in a 65-41 WPIAL Section 2-AA victory over rival Shenango last week. Her previous career high of 26 was set in this year’s season-opening 72-27 win over Aliquippa in the Cornell Tipoff Tournament on Dec. 6.

The performance earned her Lawrence County Athlete of the Week honors, an award sponsored by Washington Centre Physical Therapy and selected by the New Castle News sports staff.

“That was a few more points than she normally has, so that was nice, and 16 rebounds is a little better than average,” Laurel coach Jessica Shevitz said. “Ellen has been starting since she was a freshman and I’ve been telling her every year that she should be averaging a double-double. She’s that talented.

“She’s a presence inside in the paint. She works really hard on her shot. She’s consistently over 50 percent from the field and is averaging a double-double on the season. She helps clean up the mess in the paint.”

Shevitz wasn’t able to employ her star forward as much defensively in past years.

“Her defense has always been her weakness and she’s fixed that this year,” the Lady Spartans coach said. “In our win over Wilmington, she guarded (Lady Greyhounds standout Tessa Sikora) and we put her on (Samantha) Seaburn when we played Shenango. We’re putting her on the other team’s best post player and a year ago, I couldn’t do that. Now, she’s doing it and doing it well. She’s accepting that role.

“She talks on the floor. She plays the back of our press and she’s very good at directing traffic and talking to her teammates, but when it comes to talking to her teammates in the locker room, she’s very quiet.”

Shaffer, a daughter of former Union High boys standout Steve Shaffer, lets her game do the speaking and has added a 3-point shot to her repertoire. She’s second on the team with nine 3-pointers.

“My height gives me an advantage underneath,” said Shaffer, who is fourth in the county in scoring with 14.3 points a game. “I try to make sure I make myself big and get open underneath. I worked a lot this summer with (former Shenango High boys coach) Bill McNees on my post moves. I’m comfortable underneath, but this summer, I worked with coach Shevitz and coach McNees to extend my shot out a little bit. I’ve hit a couple threes this season. That’s kind of exciting, because I’ve never hit any before.”

Shaffer quickly credits her teammates for their help on the floor.

“As a team, we worked really well together,” she said. “We went into the Shenango game with a plan of what we needed to do. Everybody worked it really well to me inside. Jessica (Conrad), Rachael (Baker), Kristin (Dicks) and Brooke (Dicks), they all do their jobs very well and tell me what I need to do to get open inside.

“At Shenango, Brooke came up to me after halftime and said I was posting up too low, so I came out and did that differently in the second half. Kristin and Brooke do a great job of seeing the court.”

Shaffer and her Lady Spartans teammates have emerged from the first half of Section 2 play as contenders for not only a playoff berth, but a section championship as well.

“We haven’t made the playoffs in a really long time,” Shaffer said. “Four of our starters have been playing together for three years now, so that’s our goal. We work really well together. At the beginning, we started well and did hit a rocky spell, but we’ve picked it back up. We can do really well the rest of the season.”

*****

THE ELLEN SHAFFER FILE
POSITION: Forward
TEAM: Laurel
GRADE: Junior
PARENTS: Ronda and Steve Shaffer
KNOWN FOR: Posting a career-high 28 points and 16 rebounds in a 65-41 WPIAL, Section 2-AA victory over rival Shenango.
FAVORITE PRO PLAYER AND WHY: Blake Griffin, “I always watched him in college and I think he’s a leader out there.”
FAVORITE PRO TEAM AND WHY: Miami Heat. “I think they work really well together and I like to watch them play.”
FUTURE PLANS: “I want to attend a four-year college or university to major in nursing.”