George Shimko, who coached the Queen of Peace girls basketball program and its de facto successor St. Laurence, has been named head coach of the Mustangs girls basketball program. Supplied photo
Girls Basketball | George Shimko takes reins for Mustangs
By Jeff Vorva
Correspondent
One longtime area basketball coach will succeed another at Evergreen Park.
George Shimko, who brought success to the girls basketball programs at Queen of Peace and St. Laurence, has been named the new girls hoops coach at Evergreen Park. He will succeed Bruce Scaduto, who retired after 27 years with the Mustangs boys and girls programs.
Shimko was hired to Oak Park-River Forest for the 2023-2024 season, but never coached for the Huskies. He left during the offseason to take the head coaching job at Joliet Catholic. He has 30 years of basketball coaching experience.
“I am excited to carry on the rich tradition of Evergreen Park Mustangs basketball,” Shimko stated in a press release.
Shimko played college basketball at Northeastern Illinois and Saint Xavier before having a lengthy career overseas.
Shimko, a St. Rita alum, served as athletic director and girls basketball head coach at Queen of Peace in Burbank from 2013-2017. He rebuilt the Pride program in four years, taking a team that finished 2-28 his first season to a 28-4 — the best mark in school history — during his last. Queen of Peace won back-to-back IHSA Class 3A regional titles in 2016 and 2017, with Shimko being named the IBCA Coach of the Year after the latter season.
Queen of Peace closed after the 2018 school year, and Shimko established the first girls basketball program at St. Laurence when the school went co-ed for the 2017-2018 school year. In six seasons, he built three full levels of girls basketball teams and guided the Vikings to a Class 3A regional title in 2018. The Vikings went 94-80 during his time there.
Shimko is also the founder and owner of the Oak Lawn-based George Shimko Basketball School, which was created in 1994. The youth basketball program for boys and girls ages 5-8 reaches about 3,500 players each year who participate in fundamental programs, weeklong camps and club teams for players in third through 12th grade.
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