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Schock steps down at Palatine

Leslie Schock has always tried to be a teacher first, then a coach.

She sure lived up to those words when she stepped down as Palatine's head girls basketball coach to allow more time to her profession as a history instructor.

Teaching five advanced placement courses (two in world history and three in United States history) and planning on working toward a second master's degree, Schock decided it best to leave the basketball post she has held the last five seasons.

She will remain Palatine's head girls lacrosse coach, a position she had held the past seven years.

“It really comes down to time,” she said of her decision to leave basketball, a sport in which she has been involved since the fourth grade. “There's not enough time in the day. It was a little too overwhelming with teaching the five AP classes, one of which was a new course we started at he school this year.”

Schock has recently enjoyed her best seasons, with this year's team going 20-10 and the 2011-12 squad finishing at 18-11.

“I wanted to leave with the program in a good place,” said Schock, who was an all-state basketball player for Elgin High School. “I'm definitely not ruling out (coaching basketball) in the future. I'm taking a break but I could see myself coaching underlevels one day, I really enjoy coaching freshman basketball.

“Basketball will forever have a place in my life. I've just got to see what it's like without it for a while.”

It will be the first time in 25 years Schock will not pick up a basketball in November.

Schock played four years on the Elgin varsity when it posted a 109-13 record from 1992 to 1996. Her prep career included a 63-1 Upstate Eight Conference mark that resulted in four conference titles.

As a senior, Schock averaged 18.6 points and 8.2 rebounds when she helped coach Lee Turek's Elgin team to a 31-2 record and a second-place finish at the Class AA state tournament.

The 6-foot-3 center-forward finished with 2,005 points and more than 1,000 rebounds.

Schock went on to play for Northwestern, where she was twice awarded Academic All-Big Ten honors.

She averaged 8.6 points and 4.8 rebounds for her career, scoring 864 points. During her junior season, Schock ranked second on the team in scoring (15.1 points per game) and third in rebounding (6.2 per game).

Coincidentally, there was no women's lacrosse team when Schock was at Northwestern. Since, the Wildcats have become a national powerhouse in the sport.

“A group of girls just came to me and really wanted to start a lacrosse team at Palatine,” Schock said. “I'm really glad I did. It's really a fun season. We have 75 girls out for the sport this season.”

As for basketball, Schock said the hardest part about the decision was leaving her assistants, which included her father, Ed, and Bill LePage.

“I truly had a great staff, one of the most solid staffs I have ever worked with,” she said. “They have a lot of potential for the future.”

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