Shannon Lum, Now One of Just Two Female Recruiting Coordinators in Men's College Basketball
By Aaron Bonderson 
, Report for America Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media
June 1, 2021, midnight ·
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Shannon Lum was recently hired as Nebraska Basketball’s recruiting coordinator. She becomes the second female and first Asian female recruiting coordinator at a men’s power five program.
Growing up in San Francisco, California and going to college at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, Lum graduated in 2018 with a sports management degree with a concentration in coaching. At St. John’s, Lum was head manager and operations assistant for the men’s basketball team and worked with legendary basketball player turned coach, Chris Mullin.
She says there’s an increasing number of women coaches in the professional game, but college basketball lags behind.
Lum says that representation is important for women.
“Representation matters. That's where I see myself and my impact for young women or women across the world honestly," Lum said. "It doesn't matter what you want to do, but if you don't see the representation, it's hard to know if you can do it, so for me to be able to be that representation, I take great pride in that.”
Mentioning that she certainly doesn’t want to be the last female on a college basketball staff, Lum wants to inspire the next generation.
The San Francisco native sheds light on her upbringing and race.
“In the bay area there's a big Asian community of basketball players, so I was fortunate enough to grow up around that to where I always felt like, 'you know what, we can do this,'" she said. "If you're qualified and you're good enough and you have the work ethic I do believe you can make whatever your goal is, happen for the most part, right.”
Lum returned to the bay area in 2018 as a coaching intern to Hall of Fame Head Coach Tara VanDerveer at the Stanford women’s program. Then, she became the director of video at California-Berkeley before being hired at Nebraska. Lum arrives at Nebraska after learning under two important figures in the game and has extensive experience in scouting and research.
Lum will be focusing on recruiting the transfer portal, advanced scouting, game preparations, and researching for Head Coach Fred Hoiberg’s staff.
Lum says she is thankful all of her hard work is paying off and to the Huskers' staff for welcoming her.