When it was Londyn calling this past season, the answer was most often the same.
Swish!
Seminole High sophomore Londyn Shain was usually deadly from the field. She spent the late autumn and winter hitting jump shots and set shots, driving for layups and scoops.
Enough jump shots, set shots, layups and scoops to rack up 804 points in 37 games, averaging 21.7 points per contest.
About five percent of Shain’s points came on one memorable night – Jan. 18 against Monahans – when she scorched the nets for 40 points, including 10 three-pointers. The Texas record for threes in one game is 12.
Shain helped the Maidens reach the Texas 4A regional semifinals and finish with a 31-6 record (.838 percentage).
Shain was named to the Texas Girls Coaches Association All – State team and to the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches All-Regional team.
And, she is the News-Sun’s Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
Tri Danley is the lucky coach who’s had the benefit of Shain being on his team the past few years. Even luckier still, Danley will have Shain on his team for two more. “Very talented, for one,” the Seminole head coach said of Shain. “She’s probably one of the better pure shooters that I’ve had the fortune of coaching. When she’s on, she’s on, and she’s very rarely off. She works really hard. Last one in the gym, last one to leave.”
“I love doing what I do, and playing the game of basketball,” Shain said. “Just being able to be creative. It’s not ever a set thing in basketball; it’s just what you can do, and having the mind set that nobody can stop you.”
About as far back as Shain can remember, she was wild about basketball.
“Ever since I could hold a ball, shoot a ball,” she said. “And it’s just meant so much to me over the years. My dad’s been able to help me throughout the years. I’ve been been playing with all these teams and I’ve always known my role, always known what I need to get better at.”
She also had the sneaker steps of her older sister Lexee to follow.
“Watching her grow up and play basketball, I’ve always wanted to be like her,” Shain said. “I knew whenever I saw her play, that’s what I wanted to do. … My whole family played basketball, and I knew that would be the sport I could succeed in.”
It was 2019 when Danley first saw Shain’s talent. She was in eighth grade.
“I had been contacted about taking the job,” Danley recalled. “I knew her dad; her dad and I grew up together. I saw her play for the first time that summer, and it didn’t take me long to realize that she was a great player. Some kids work their entire life to learn how to shoot the ball. She does it naturally. She’s got a great shot. That’s a result of her practicing and spending a lot of time in the gym. She’s one that we can definitely build the team around, and we’ve tried to do that the last couple of years.”
Over the next two years, Shain’s game should further evolve, but her role on the team will evolve even more. Up until now in her career, Shain has had the benefit of her cousin, Xoe Rosalez, handling the team’s leadership. Rosalez is graduating Seminole High later this spring, so Shain is going to need to do more than pour in points.
“She’s not real vocal,” Danley said.
“She has kind of followed (Xoe’s) lead. This year, Londyn’s really got out of her comfort zone and was more vocal. But with Londyn, I would say it was more leading by example, doing what she does, being the first one there, last one to leave, and encouraging everybody to do the same.
“Next year she’s really going to have to lead us on the court and vocally. She really hasn’t had to do that her last couple of years. But next year she’s going to have to – and she can.”
“Obviously, the goal is the state championship,” Shain said. “But I also want to become the leader and the best player who’s come in on the girls side (at Seminole). And I want it to inspire other girls to know that their dreams can come true.”
Shain’s dream was to play for Geno Auriemma and UConn’s nationally-renowned women’s basketball program. But, Lubbock appears to be her new preferred destination.
“Now I think there’s no place like home,” Shain said, “and my goal is to play at Texas Tech.”