She is a former All-American college player at the University of Louisville and was selected with the eighth overall pick in the first round of the 2014 draft by the Atlanta Dream.

Raised on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Mission, Oregon, she was the subject of a documentary by filmmaker Jonathan Hock called Off the Rez, which chronicled her journey to earn an NCAA scholarship with her basketball ability.

The top twenty high school players in the country are named as WBCA All-Americans, and eligible to play in the all-star game.

In her senior season, Schimmel averaged 17.1 points per game to lead the team in scoring and was named an All-American by the USBWA and Associated Press.

[7] Source[8] Schimmel was selected to be a member of the team representing the US at the 2013 World University Games held in Kazan, Russia.

Despite coming off the bench, Schimmel had an impressive rookie season, averaging 8.3 ppg and was voted a WNBA All-Star starter, become just the third reserve in league history to achieve that.

[10] She also earned recognition as the 2014 WNBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player on July 19, 2014, in Phoenix, Arizona, as Schimmel out battled Skylar Diggins by scoring a then WNBA All-Star Game record, 29 points (which would be broken by Maya Moore the following year).

[11] With Schimmel's productivity on the court along with a supporting cast of Sancho Lyttle, all-star center Érika de Souza and superstar small forward Angel McCoughtry, the Atlanta Dream were the number one seed in the Eastern Conference, but were upset in the first round of the playoffs, losing 2–1 to the fourth-seeded Chicago Sky.

[15] In April 2018, Schimmel made her return to the Liberty in training camp but would be waived a month later before the start of the 2018 WNBA season.