When Hanna Schimmer called UNK soccer coach Rob Breton to announce her commitment, Breton sprinted around the top floor of the Health & Sports Center in excitement.
This fall, Schimmer became the first Loper in program history to score 10 goals in a season and was tied for the most goals in the MIAA.
“(Schimmer) has been a very big piece,” Breton said. “At the same time, she’s balanced us in a lot of other ways as well outside of just her goal-scoring. That’s the thing I remind her every day. Her value is not just her goal-scoring. Her value is everything that she brings from who she is, to how she works, to how selfless she is.”
Turn the page back to 2011 when Raliegh Mercer was a sophomore on the UNK soccer team in the program’s third year of existence. Mercer set the record for goals in a season with nine, a mark that stood for 13 years.
But after her sophomore year, Mercer decided to leave UNK for culinary school and get her degree in nutrition before turning to the military.
“I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do,” Mercer said.
Meanwhile, Schimmer grew up in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and committed to play soccer at Iowa Western Community College in her hometown. Schimmer scored 20 goals in her first season to help lead the Reivers to the NJCAA national championship. However, Schimmer needed ankle surgery on both ankles after the season and entered the transfer portal.
“I ended up leaving to go to Midland University in Fremont because my former club coach got the assistant role,” Schimmer said.
At Midland, Schimmer led the Warriors to the conference championship. She scored 16 goals before entering the portal again.
“It kind of fell apart,” Schimmer said. “Our coaches ended up getting fired and the team just fell apart.”
Flash forward to 2024. Mercer is now an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Tech in the Air Force and Schimmer is the new UNK record holder for goals in a season. Mercer said that she was happy to see her record get broken.
“I’m one of those people who likes to see other people succeed and so I want to be a teacher,” Mercer said. “To see somebody finally reach (10 goals), I think it’s awesome. It just speaks to how the program is going now compared to how it was going then.”
After playing for three colleges in three years, Schimmer has seen her goal totals diminish as she has worked her way up the college ranks.
“It’s very interesting coming from kind of like lower levels because in my first freshman season, I scored 20 goals at Iowa Western,” Schimmer said. “Then I’ve always had that as, like, kind of a baseline, but as I’ve gone up in divisions, I’m like, oh, that’s not realistic anymore.”
Schimmer and Mercer met for the first time over a Zoom call last week, where Mercer offered up some advice for the new record holder.
“Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do anything,” Mercer said. “You might not be able to do it in a conventional way, but there is a way to do it and just find that way.”
UNK made it to the conference tournament for the first time in nine years this fall. Next year, the Lopers will attempt to break more records in Schimmer’s senior season to send Breton running around the Health & Sports Center in excitement.
