Lisa Helmers

Classroom

Since arriving at LMU in the 2006-07 school year, Helmers has been on the Dean’s List each of her six semesters. As a sociology major with a 3.88 GPA, in each of the past two school years, she has earned Gold Honors (GPA between 3.75 and 4.00) from the West Coast Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll and was LMU’s lone representative on the West Coast Conference Winter All-Academic team. She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Delta International Honor Society for Sociology. Helmers aspires to combine her passions for education and business development after graduation. In the summer between her junior and senior years, she interned at Launch Education, a tutoring company based in Santa Monica, Calif., that provides in-home, private tutoring around the Los Angeles area. To help the company explore the possibility of expansion to Washington, D.C., Helmers conducted market research on the region, researching information on the schools, specialists, and competition in the area. Her final project for the internship was a presentation of her findings to the company. In her words, Helmers said of the experience “This internship allowed me to see first-hand what makes a successful tutoring company as well as how a small business can expand.”

Character

Helmers has been a prime example of the type of player head coach Julie Wilhoit loves. A captain in her junior and senior seasons, Helmers has taken on a leadership role and not just in her title. In each of the last two years, the LMU roster has been heavy on underclassmen (including last year, where there was just one senior) so Helmers has taken it upon herself to mentor her younger teammates. Wilhoit says: “Lisa is about stability and provides a calming presence and guiding force to our underclassmen. They trust her judgment and rely on her understanding of our system and expectations for our program. As a coach looking at her, she reflects all the characteristics I want in our players: a level-headed temperament, calm but serious, a strong work ethic. Lisa understands the direction we are striving for as a program and has the ability to pull the team into alignment. She is technical, practical and rational but also respectful, a hard worker and conscientious. Above all, though, she is a genuinely nice person.”

Community

Helmers has been heavily involved with the LMU community, both through her activities with the LMU women’s basketball team and on her own. With the team last year, she and the Lions held eight basketball clinics throughout the year at local elementary and middle schools, where the players not only helped the students with their basketball, but also talked to them about life and the importance of staying in school. The team has taken that concept a step further this year, as it will hold monthly mentoring visits with 7th graders at Orville Wright Middle School through the LMU Family of Schools College Connection Program. The theme of the visits is “College Readiness” and the players are serving as College-Readiness Mentors, working with the students to make attending college a priority and goal in their lives. The program will culminate with the middle school students spending a day at LMU in which they will shadow a player through classes, practice, and mealtimes. On her own, Helmers has made and distributed sandwiches to the homeless in downtown Los Angeles and volunteered at clinics for Special Education programs and with the Special Olympics. She has also participated in Community Clean Ups at local schools.

Competition

A 5-9 guard, Helmers is one of the top three-point shooters in the West Coast Conference and one of the best to ever suit up for LMU. Last season, she was fourth in the WCC in three-pointers made, 12th in three-point percentage, and 26th in scoring. She averaged 8.0 points and 3.0 rebounds per game and was one of two LMU players to start all 30 games as the Lions went 18-12 overall. Her 54 three-pointers made were the fifth-most in a single season at LMU and she enters her senior year third all-time at the school in career three-pointers made, needing 36 to set the record. Helmers won the team’s Hustle Award and was an honoree for the LMU Pride Award, given to one student-athlete from each team that exemplifies the spirit of LMU athletics. As a sophomore, Helmers was the only player named to the all-tournament teams at both of LMU’s home tournaments and sank the third-most three-pointers (59) in a season while starting 29 of the 30 games. She has improved her scoring, rebounding and assist numbers every season of her career. Through her contributions, the Lions have finished at or above .500 in each of her three seasons and have a combined three-season record of 52-39.