Break Update: Mari Shelton Leads the Tops

Quimari Shelton and her Basketball Life

Feature Article by Ryan Bernstein (Tri-C Student)

Cuyahoga Community College women's basketball team has had an outstanding start to their season. The players have played with heart and the coaches have shown compassion, but there is one player that has performed like no other, one that has shown a type of leadership that helps guide her teammates on and off the court. This player is Quimari ("Mari") Shelton, forward and freshman at Tri-C studying to be an Ultrasound Technician.

Shelton started playing basketball in high school and she was a starter all four years. She went to Kenmore-Garfield High School and played under their head coach, Paris Caldwell.

Caldwell was the junior varsity coach Shelton's freshman year, with her late mother being her head coach her freshman year.

"My former high school coach," Shelton said. "She passed away my sophomore year, and Paris Caldwell is her daughter. She took over our team after her mother passed away, but she is the main reason I wear twenty-three."

Paris Caldwell lived up to her mother's expectations and coached Shelton to the best of her ability, making Shelton very successful in her high school basketball career.

"I was the JV coach Mari's freshman year, and my late mother Coach Jones was the head varsity coach," Caldwell says. "At the first open gym of the season, I watch the freshmen because most freshman start off on JV, when I watched Mari play, I looked straight at my mom and said, oh yeah, she's going to play varsity only."

Caldwell noticed great improvement from Shelton throughout her four high school seasons. From being on junior varsity for no more than a few days, to moving to varsity the rest of high school.

"Mari's biggest improvement from day 1 was her confidence, Caldwell mentioned. "As a freshman she had grit and hard work, but not a lot of skill, she was just a raw talented player. Her senior year she learned the game and was able to score at will."

As Shelton wrapped up her high school career at Kenmore-Garfield, she decided to take her talent to Cuyahoga Community College.

"First of all, it's close to home," Shelton says. "Secondly, my friend, one of my good friends, Brianna, she started playing at first and she said it is a good community, a good team, a good atmosphere. I went to an open gym, and I liked it."

After two years of sports because of the pandemic, Tri-C brought in all new players and a new head coach, Omar Williams. Shelton spoke on Coach Williams and had nothing but good to say about him and his passion he has for his team.

"He's very motivational, that is one thing I can say. He makes sure all of us, if not most of us, know we are here and he's here to make us better," Shelton said. "Coming into college, I wasn't really like a big ball handler in high school. Since I came to Tri-C, he felt that I can transition more into a ball handler and when I move to a four-year school, I want people to see me as a ball handler, he's very helpful to me to transition into a ball handler."

Coach Williams has seen much improvement from Shelton throughout the season. Mostly in "conditioning, speed and being patient with the ball".

"Mari is a great teammate she comes to practice every day with a smile on her face," Williams says. "Her work ethic speaks for itself she always encourages everyone. Overall, just a great young lady."

As Williams looks past this season and into the future, he sees much success with Shelton inside and outside basketball.

"Basketball wise she will have several options after this year and even more if she sticks around with us next year," Williams speaks upon. "Off the court she's looking to go into the medical field and of course in Cleveland there's plenty of opportunity here for that."

With Shelton only knowing her teammates for a few months, she felt that they have been friends for many years. It seems as if they weren't just teammates, but more of a family.

"Honestly, like the best thing about our team, is how we bonded together so quickly," Shelton went on. "If you came in our locker room, you would thing we knew each other for years. It's really nice that we can be real cool real fast."

Shelton's fellow teammate, Tori Smith, spoke on what type of impact Shelton has made and the connection she has made between her and her teammates.