Schwartz stays steady

By Bart Isley

Published: May 13, 2008

Western Albemarle’s Mary Schwartz has always shown a certain maturity on the field. In basketball or in lacrosse, Schwartz always seems to know how to control the pace, when to get teammates involved and when to take over.
“She knows when to back off and let other people shine and she knows when to step up,” said Western Albemarle lacrosse coach Nancy Haws. “She is so unselfish that way.”
That maturity is why Schwartz’s parents allowed their daughter to handle the recruiting process on her own. In a sports world filled with tales of overbearing parents who want to have a say in every single aspect of their child’s career, Michael Schwartz and Sheri McCabe took a step backwards when it came time for their daughter to choose where she’d play.
“We stayed neutral,” McCabe said. “We were the last to know. It’s her life, we felt like she needed to make that decision.”
And what a decision Schwartz had. The Western senior defined the word gym rat as a basketball player and Schwartz had to choose between playing both lacrosse and basketball at Roanoke College or focusing on lacrosse at George Mason.
Schwartz helped lead Western to a district title and earned All-Region II honors in basketball, but she is also a truly dominant lacrosse player. The center-midfielder leads Western or
is second in five statistical categories, including goals (36), assists (22), caused turnovers (39) and draw controls (38). She’ll try and spark the Warriors to a Jefferson District tournament title starting tonight in the semifinals against Charlottesville at 7 p.m. at Western.
Mason won out in the college search process, but not before a lot of soul-searching by Schwartz.
“In my head the decision changed every 30 minutes,” Schwartz said. “It was really hard and I’ll definitely miss [basketball], but it’s just about opportunities. I’ll definitely play pick-up and intramurals.”
Schwartz leaned heavily on her coaches for guidance on how to breakdown the college decision, including basketball head coach Jason Barnett, basketball assistant Kris Wright and Haws, among others. Schwartz called several of them to meet at once and discuss things together.
“She values everybody’s opinion,” Haws said. “She didn’t want to make this decision without really thinking through it all.”
Coaching is also a big part of what attracted Schwartz to Mason. Head coach Amy Bokker and her staff made a big impression on the Western senior.
“The coaches are really awesome,” Schwartz said. “They’re all very understanding, nice people. They’re a lot like all the coaches I’ve had throughout the years.”
Right now though, Schwartz is focused on wrapping up a decorated career at Western Albemarle, hopefully with a long playoff run for the Warriors’ lacrosse squad. Even if that gets cut short though, things have already surpassed the senior’s expectations.
“It’s been an awesome year, I can’t even describe how good it’s been,” Schwartz said.