What can Brown do for Mohawk? Plenty!
By Andrew Petyak
New Castle News
First in the county with 272 points.
Tied for the lead in scoring average at 16 points per game.
Second from the free-throw line, shooting an impressive 80.4 percent.
Dominating the competition in 3-pointers with 33.
Mohawk High point guard Shelby Brown has become the player to watch in Lawrence County girls basketball circles. The senior has been delivering all season long for the WPIAL Section 2-AA-leading Lady Warriors (8-0 section, 12-4 overall). A 20-point effort last week in Mohawk’s overtime victory against Neshannock cemented her place at the top of the ranks once and for all. Sprinkle in 10 points against Shenango in another section triumph, and Brown has earned Lawrence County Athlete of the Week honors, an award sponsored by Washington Centre Physical Therapy and selected by the New Castle News sports staff.
It would be easy to stop with the statistics, regarding Brown as one of the best players in the county, but it goes beyond that. In fact, the last person focused on the numbers and personal accolades is Brown herself.
“Half the time I don’t even know how many points I have until the paper comes out the next day,” she said. “I don’t even keep track of that kind of stuff.”
So, what does Brown contribute that goes beyond the scoreboard? It starts with her leadership.
“I wanted to make the team better this year. I wanted to make sure I was a leader out on the court,” she said. “Coach and I always talked about being a coach out on the court. That was my one goal as a player this year.”
Lady Warriors coach Mike O’Lare has little doubt that Brown has succeeded in her goal.
“She definitely is this year. A lot of what we try to infuse in our program, we’re doing it from our point guard all the way up,” he said. “You have more of a special connection from point guard to coach at all levels, because that’s your quarterback. If she can really know your offense, then we can be where we need to be. This year, she’s really grasped that.
“I’ve been sitting on this bench for a long time, and I haven’t played for a long time in a game that counts. Sometimes the kids can see things that you can’t. She can come to the bench in a timeout or the flow of a game and say when she thinks something is going to work. I can sit with her (at practice) as if she’s a coach on the staff. She’ll come in with a notebook full of things that she watched on film and thinks we can try. It’s a high level of thinking for a high school kid.”
When asked about what her team's ambitions for the season, Brown pointed to the banners hanging on the ceilings of the Mohawk gym with a look of conviction.
“We want to put 2013 up on that banner,” she said, pointing to the one listing Mohawk’s section championships in girls basketball. “Coach has been talking to us about it since seventh grade when we won the junior high championship. Ever since, we wanted to put 2013 up on that banner. We can’t get that out of our minds. We want to get past the second round of the playoffs this year and make it to states.”
Brown began playing basketball in fifth grade. Her father, Lindy Brown, would coach her older sister, Chelsea, a basketball and softball star for Mohawk who currently pitches for the Westminster College women's softball team. Shelby would do all the drills with the two, and ever since then, she hasn't been able to put a basketball down.
“I remember Chelsea came home one day after varsity practice and she told me coach O’Lare had been making fun of me and saying that I probably dribble a basketball at the dinner table,” Brown chuckled. “I remember we were at one of those junior high camps down at the elementary school and coach (Jared) Stratton and O’Lare made me do figure-eight dribbling between my legs and they were laughing. They thought it was the coolest thing ever.”
O’Lare echoed that Brown's ball-handling skills were her greatest asset as a point guard.
“If I ever wanted to make some money, I would make a DVD with her ball-handling skills on it. I do show her off everywhere I can, especially to younger kids in our program. I want those kids to learn how to handle that ball like she does, because it’s only going to make our teams better and better.
“In hoops in general, that’s the best skill you can have — to take that ball and go where you want to go when you want to go. A lot of kids games get stuck because they can’t dribble. She, at this point, can go pretty much where she wants to go when she wants to go. It’s a great thing.”
There’s little doubt to those around Brown that she has a bright future ahead of her. In the immediate, the Lady Warriors are within a handful of wins of their coveted section title. On a team with eight seniors and experience against tough competition, it appears the sky is the limit for how far they can go.
“Only two things were going to hold us back this year — our chemistry and our effort,” Brown said. “So far, the chemistry has been perfect. All the seniors, we're all so close. We’re friends on and off the court. We hang out with freshmen and we go out to eat before games. We’re not distant from each other, and we’re always together.”
Brown’s post-high school career looks just as promising. Regardless of where she goes and what she does, O’Lare believes Brown’s family has given her all the tools she needs to succeed.
“Everything that’s instilled in her comes from home. We’d like to think we play a small part as coaches, but it’s really what’s coming from home. I’ve been here seven years, and every year I’ve had a Brown on the team. Her sister was a four-year player, and now I’m ending that generation. With that passion and that work ethic, whatever Shelby chooses to do after this, when the game is done, I have no doubt she’s going to be good at it.”
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THE SHELBY BROWN FILE
POSITION: Guard
TEAM: Mohawk
KNOWN FOR: Brown scored 20 points in an overtime thriller last week in a win at Neshannock. She currently is as low as second in all three major scoring categories in Lawrence County.
PARENTS: Lindy and Brenda Brown
FAVORITE PLAYER AND WHY: Mason Plumlee, Duke “He’s powerful and he can shoot. He’s one of the star players on Duke and he mostly has double-doubles.”
FAVORITE TEAM AND WHY: Duke. “For the past couple years, I’ve really liked their style of play.”
FUTURE PLANS: Brown plans on going to college where she hopes to play basketball and major in marketing and business administration.