GREENFIELD — The headband may be gone, but she can still chuck the 3s.
A lifelong Greenfield resident and now a teacher at Eastern Hancock Middle School, Lindsey Roberson Shaw was one of the all-time greats at Franklin College.
The school, where she starred for the women’s basketball team for four years, announced earlier this summer the 5-foot-9 guard and all-time leader in 3-pointers would be inducted into the Franklin College Athletics Hall of Fame class of 2020.
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Initially, the induction of Shaw and two other Franklin College athletic greats was scheduled for halftime of the school’s Homecoming football game on October 10.
Since the announcement of the Class of 2020, the school has suspended its football season, as well as soccer and volleyball, to the spring. So, that October date could change.
“I was honored and humbled for them to pick me when they did,” said Shaw, who graduated from Franklin College in 2006.
Admittedly, the sharp-shooting guard thought the honor may come some time down the road. She was surprised it happened so soon.
Shaw joked, “I chucked a lot of 3s.”
There was no doubt she had the résumé to become part of prestigious company. She was more than just a long-range bomber.
Her outside-shooting prowess is just the tip of the iceberg of what she accomplished during her time with the Grizzlies.
Along with being the school’s single-season (81) and career (255) leader in 3-pointers, she was a two-time NCAA Division III All-American and two-time league MVP in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. She was named first team All-HCAC four times.
Shaw helped lead Franklin College to three conference titles, two conference tournament titles and three berths into the NCAA tournament.
In 113 games with the Grizzlies, she averaged 13.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists.
“You don’t win the conference player of the year twice without being talented and driven,” Kim Eiler, Franklin College’s coach from 2004-12, said. “She wasn’t cocky, but she had an air of confidence, and it rubbed off on her teammates.
“She had the green light to shoot and she was open as soon as she walked in the gym,” Eiler added. “She had that iconic headband and that air about her.”
Except for her four years on campus at Franklin College, Shaw has spent her entire life living in Greenfield. She went to Mt. Comfort Elementary and Mt. Vernon Middle School before electing to follow some family members by attending high school at Roncalli from 1998-2002.
She is currently in her 14th year as a science teacher at Eastern Hancock Middle School. From 2007-11, Shaw was the head coach of the Eastern Hancock High School girls basketball team. She also spent a year on the coaching staff with Eiler at Franklin College.
Her EHMS classroom is across the hall from current EH high school girls basketball coach Shari Doud, who coached Shaw in middle school track at MVMS, as well as in AAU basketball.
“She was one of those kids that was good at anything she did,” Doud said. “When I coached her in track, if I put her in five events, she would put her nose to the grindstone and get it done.”
Doud and her father coached Shaw in AAU basketball.
“It was evidently clear she was going to be a special player,” Doud added.
“I love them dearly and learned a lot from them,” Shaw said of the Douds.
The Royals head coach helped Shaw out early and the favor was returned down the road.
When Doud was hired to teach and coach at Eastern Hancock, Shaw was already a veteran teacher in the school system.
“I showed her the way early in life,” Doud said. “When I was a first-year teacher at EHMS, she helped me quite a bit along the way.”
They’ve stayed close. Shaw is the director of Doud’s youth league basketball program that includes girls in kindergarten through sixth grade.
A few years ago, Doud had one last chance to coach her star pupil as part of the annual Eastern Hancock 3-on-3 tournament.
“We won and she led us,” Doud said. “She shot it just like she did in college.”
And she still chucks the 3s today. Only this time it’s mostly with her 7-year-old son on the outdoor goals at the church that is located near their home.
“I’m not as fast as I was, but I can still shoot it,” Shaw said.
Shaw said she’s spent her life in Greenfield because she loves the small-town life. She had opportunities to play college basketball at the Division-I level, but elected to play at Franklin College for its home-town, small-town feel.
Returning to Greenfield after graduation was a natural fit, she said, as her husband, too, is from a small town, growing up in Boggstown and attending Triton Central High School.
All that fits in well with her current job at Eastern Hancock.
“I love it her and I love Eastern Hancock. I’m going to be here for a while,” Shaw said.
