GLIAC win marks full-circle career for Laker
ALLENDALE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The Grand Valley State University women winning the GLIAC tournament is a full-circle moment for one player.
Dawn Plitzuweit is forever a part of the program’s history after she brought its first and still only national championship to life. Now one very important person from her 2006 bench is back in the same colors.
GVSU wins GLIAC tournament championship
Grand Valley redshirt sophomore Lexi Plitzuweit was practically born on the Laker bench.
“Being a coach’s daughter is something I’m really grateful for,” she said. “Coming to practice as a toddler. Sitting on the side, playing with some toys.”
Her mom, Dawn Plitzuweit, was the Lakers’ head coach for five years. She left in the middle of the 2002-2003 season to give birth to Lexi Plitzuweit.
“She was three days old when she was back in the gym in a front pack carrier,” said Dawn Plitzuweit.
Current head coach Mike Williams had to take over while Dawn Plitzuweit was gone.
“Fast forward 20-something years and you’ve got that player that was born during that time period playing on your team,” said Williams.
Lexi Plitzuweit ended up being a good luck charm in 2006.
“I remember them winning the national championship and bringing her down flowers, which was pretty special,” she recalled.
“I remember when she was just first born, watching film at 2:30 in the morning with her because I was like, ‘Well, we’re up anyway. Might as well get some work done.’ A couple years later, we go on to advance in the NCAA tournament. She was a part of all of it,” Dawn Plitzuweit said.
Now she’s back in that same gym with the same tools her mom taught that team and more.
“First grade, we started the basketball fundamental conversations: Get the weight on the pivot foot, don’t travel. Other kids were allowed, in upward basketball, to take the ball and run and carry it. I wasn’t,” Lexi Plitzuweit said.
“We did one drill where you have to jump and the save the ball out of bounds. You have to fall on the floor, dive on the floor. For Lexi and some of her friends, those were some of her favorite drills. When you watch Lexi play, that’s kind of how she still continues to play. She really gets after it,” Dawn Plitzuweit said.
Recruiting Lexi Plitzuweit wasn’t any easier, though.
“Coach Phil had a chance to see her play. He came back and said, ‘I think we need to recruit her, Coach.’ And I said, ‘That’s great, but you’re running point on this because I know the family,’” Williams said.
“I don’t think it felt right because I was here when I was four years old. I think it just felt right because of how special Grand Valley is,” Lexi Plitzuweit said.
Dawn Plitzuweit is the head coach at the University of Minnesota now but she still makes it back whenever the schedules align.
“It’s really, really neat to see it all come to fruition. This is her journey. That’s what makes it really, really special,” she said.
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