{"id":1975,"date":"2015-07-31T21:39:32","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T21:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/?p=1975"},"modified":"2015-07-31T21:39:32","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T21:39:32","slug":"coach-sheltons-wild-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/2015\/07\/31\/coach-sheltons-wild-ride\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach Shelton’s Wild Ride"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"boys-v-basketball-vs-suffield-2015_16416449487_o\"<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s been a wild ride.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the first thing Michael Shelton says as he leans back onto his office couch and smoothes his tie. This is a rare moment of contemplation for the coach and assistant director of admissions. His phone is always ringing: There\u2019s a new student asking about the team, a basketball player who needs workout advice, an advisee with a schedule question.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coach Shelton\u2014like so many others at the school\u2014wears many hats. Having just finished coaching one of the most successful winters in Williston Northampton basketball history, he had to transition quickly into the admission and recruitment season that marks the spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his first year at Williston Northampton, Coach Shelton helped recruit 10 strong players. Those students formed the foundation of what would become a powerhouse basketball team\u2014one that would rack up the most wins in school history, earn the #2 seed in the Class A tournament, defeat two-time defending New England champion Exeter Academy, and go on the New England Prep School Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

For their outstanding play during the season, three boys garnered postseason recognition on the All New England team; Ryan Richmond \u201915 was named the outstanding player of the tournament; and Coach Shelton was named the NEPSAC Class A Coach of the Year.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"boys-v-basketball-vs-exeter-2015_16697804046_o\"<\/a>That the students would come together the way they did was not always a given. In fact, the team had faced defeats\u2014a 59-62 loss to Kimball Union Academy, and a 67-72 loss to Cheshire Academy\u2014as well as the transfer of one of its key players early in the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs coaches, it\u2019s our job to have all of those different personalities and skill sets come together on the court,\u201d Coach Shelton said. \u201cSo that\u2019s what my initial goal was from the onset, to try and create a winning culture on and off the court here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To create that winning culture, Coach Shelton drilled into his team the four pillars of his coaching philosophy: the collective is stronger than the individual; there is always room to grow; the only way to perfect your craft is to keep patiently hammering away at it; and academic excellence is always a priority.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coach Shelton honed this philosophy at the college level, where he served as an assistant basketball coach at Winthrop University, an assistant men\u2019s basketball coach at Wesleyan University, and an assistant coach at the University of New Haven. He also played at NCAA Division II Bellarmine University on a full athletic scholarship.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a background forged a self-described \u201creally tough coach\u201d with a desire to push students to their limits. Or, in his words, \u201cmake them comfortable with being uncomfortable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hold myself to a higher standard than I hold other people,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s just something that I\u2019ve learned and that\u2019s why I push the kids so hard. I know that greatness is in everyone, and I know that, for a lot of us, we just have never pushed past that boundary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"boys-v-basketball-vs-suffield-2015_16436566308_o\"<\/a>For the team, that meant that a win didn\u2019t necessarily lead to a celebration\u2014especially if Coach Shelton felt that the players were not performing at their best. After a particularly lackluster victory against Westminster, Coach Shelton brought the team home in silence, gave them a<\/span> talk, and had them run a 45-minute practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNobody wanted to be there. No one wanted to be doing sprints, or defensive slides or whatever the case may be, but we started to see the accountability of each kid to the kid next to them and their teammates, and then spurring them on, \u2018We need to get this right,\u201d\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I was like, \u2018Okay, we have it.\u2019 That was the catalyst of us coming together and starting to roll toward the end of the season.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a message that players such as point guard Ryan Richmond took to heart. Reflecting on the season in April, as he was preparing to commit to Bentley University, Mr. Richmond said he had learned \u201cthe value of hard work and sacrifice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNot a lot of people would be willing to do what we did, which is why they weren\u2019t as successful as us,\u201d he said, adding that the \u201ccountless workouts, practices and film sessions\u201d had made a difference.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSacrifice was also key,\u201d Mr. Richmond added. \u201cAs individuals, we had to sacrifice what we were capable of doing for the positive progression of the whole team. It had to be about \u2018we\u2019 and not \u2018me.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a process eventually lead to Coach Shelton giving players more control, and ultimately more opportunities for cooperation and leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were moments in games after that where I just had to let the guys figure it out on the court,\u201d he said. \u201cLet them talk, communicate, huddle together, come together as a team and try to fix it, rather than me always trying to give them the answer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For Coach Shelton, the work of the past season isn\u2019t ultimately about winning a single championship, or even two, or three. It\u2019s about building a long legacy of excellence\u2014on the court and in the classroom.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomething that I really believe in is: we just do what we do,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t really change what we do. Because you have to have conviction in what you\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s been a wild ride.\u201d That\u2019s the first thing Michael Shelton says as he leans back onto his office couch and smoothes his tie. This is a rare moment of contemplation for the coach and assistant director of admissions. His phone is always ringing: There\u2019s a new student asking about the team, a basketball player … Continue reading Coach Shelton’s Wild Ride<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athletics-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1982,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975\/revisions\/1982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}