Early in July, Shelby Shelton was officially named as the new head coach at Paris Junior College. After a single season coaching at the Division I level, she returns to junior college softball, the place where she began both her playing and coaching careers.
A product of Howard College before finishing her playing career at UT-Tyler, Shelton has long been seen as something of a rising star in the coaching profession; in 2018, she was named the NFCA’s National Junior College Assistant Coach of the Year. After spending four years on staff at Howard, her alma mater, Shelton spent the 2020 season as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech.
“I learned so much at Louisiana Tech, even though it was a short year,” Shelton said. “Being around the quality of athletes, at what is still the highest level of college softball, taught me so much as a coach. The coaching staff and administration at Louisiana Tech provided me with so many opportunities to grow and learn a lot about what it takes to manage and how to treat people; that’s something that really stands out to me during my time at Tech.”
Shelton wasn’t on the prowl for a new job, but the opportunity to take the helm at Paris was too good to pass up. “”The interview was really, really good, and I thought the administration was really aligned with what I saw as the future of the program,” Shelton recalled. “They offered me the job the same day that I interviewed, and I accepted it… it gave me an opportunity be even closer to the town that I grew up in and where my parents live, and it gave me the chance to be a head coach for the first time. It was truly something that I became excited about the more that I thought about it.”
Describing herself as a “positive and upbeat” coach, Shelton emphasized recruiting and development as two traits that she intends to establish as hallmarks of the Paris program under her leadership. “We’re going to work every day to develop better people, better students, and better players,” she said. “I’m a big believer in having good energy in everything that we do; good effort, body language, attitude, presence on the field. I expect [players]to work hard, and our coaching staff is going to work hard, as well, in return.”
As she prepares for the start of the academic year that will contain a lot of firsts in her head coaching career, Shelton has a clear vision for what she wants to see from her program: “Each year, I want the program to be better than it was the year before. I really want to be involved in the community. I want to be leaders on campus, and I want to be competitive on the softball field. And when somebody comes to watch our team play, I hope they say ‘Wow, that team is really prepared and they play really hard.'”
“The mentors that I have had in my career have been tremendous,” Shelton was sure to add. “Mike Reed at UT-Tyler, Kelly Raines at Howard, Coach [Maria Winn-Ratliff] at Louisiana Tech… they have all helped prepare me for this next step. I’m excited to run my own program; I feel like I’m prepared and ready for the challenge.”
