Christian Academy of Louisville basketball player Shelby Calhoun. Nov. 7, 2016.
Shelby Calhoun isn’t your average freshman.
The 5-foot-10 guard has already proven to be one of the best players in the state when the ball is in her hands.
Playing in her third season of varsity basketball for Christian Academy of Louisville, Calhoun has blossomed this season into an all-around threat who is constantly assaulting the stat sheet. She has recorded a double-double in points and rebounds 18 times this season and recorded a quadruple-double with 27 points, 12 rebounds, 10 steals and 10 blocks in a defeat to Elizabethtown, a top-10 team.
Which all begs the question: How is she doing this?
As a seventh grader, CAL coach Perry White said, “she was a little bit nervous and didn’t want to do too much. She just played within herself. It was the same thing really last year. She started to come out of her shell a little bit, you’d see signs of it.
“This year, it’s a completely different player. She’s now fallen in love with the game.”
While most freshmen are caught up adjusting to a high school academic workload or fretting about fitting in amongst their classmates, Calhoun is laser-focused on basketball.
Instead of watching TV or meeting up with friends after school, Calhoun returns home from practice, completes her homework, and heads outside to her family’s basketball hoop to put up some more shots or practice her dribbling fundamentals.
It doesn’t leave much time for a social life, Calhoun said with a laugh.
Calhoun has had a basketball in her hands for as long as she can remember. She recalled how she used to play with her Little Tikes hoop as well as at the Northeast Family YMCA in Middletown with her father, Doug Calhoun II, who played two years for Denny Crum while also playing on the track and field team and football team during different times of his four years at Louisville between the fall 1989 and spring 1994.
Calhoun’s aunt Brandi also played college basketball, playing for West Virginia from 1995-1999. The two have been important role models for Shelby Calhoun’s development both as a person and a player.
“My parents and Brandi, they’ve worked so hard in their lives and that’s definitely played a big role in my life,” Calhoun said. “They’re my role models, and whatever they do I see. They work so hard, whether it be in practice, school, and in their jobs too. That’s the kind of person I want to become.”
At her current rate, there’s a good chance Calhoun could be following in her father’s and aunt’s footsteps.
The CAL freshman, who is averaging 18.9 points, 12.6 rebounds, 4.25 assists, 5.25 steals, and 2.3 blocks per game, has already received scholarship offers from Xavier and Butler and is receiving interest from Indiana, Purdue, and Michigan. Though she was sidelined by an ankle injury last summer, Calhoun could pick up more offers this summer when she plays for the Indy Lady Gym Rats, which is affiliated with the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League. If invited, Calhoun also plans on trying out for the USA Under-16 Girls National Team at its trials this May.
“If you look the last seven years, they’ve produced the seven or eight McDonald’s All Americans,” Doug Calhoun said of the Lady Gym Rats AAU program. “She’s going up against girls (in practice) with like 50 scholarships each.
“The cool thing is Shelby is a different breed, but she’s humble,” he added. “The thing is people don’t know behind the scenes is because she works so hard. I’m her biggest critic and biggest fan. I told Shelby once she was rushing her shot, and the next thing you know she’s scoring 20 points. … Me and my wife both, we’re proud of her and how hard she plays.”
How much better can Calhoun get? According to White, the sky’s the limit.
“She can be as good as she wants to be, White said. “Provided she doesn’t get injured, I really think she’ll be Miss Basketball. I’m biased but at this point I think she’s the best freshman in the state. There’s a couple out there that will give her a run, and there may be some that show up or develop in the future, but as long as she keeps working hard, I don’t see how she won’t be Miss basketball.”
Being touted for Miss Basketball? Calhoun’s definitely not your average freshman.