THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603070577
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Every day is Christmas to Shonda Deberry, so it's no wonder she could become the first Lady Monarch to own five golden rings.
The 5-foot-8 guard, whose positive spirit is a year-round trait, could become the first Old Dominion player to complete her eligibility as a member of five conference championship teams. And she has the hardware to prove it.
Four rings, each uniquely designed, to signify ODU as conference champions. The fifth will be coming if the heavily favored Lady Monarchs (24-2), ranked sixth in the nation, nab another Colonial Athletic Association crown on Saturday after completing the regular season unbeaten in league play.
``I never take 'em for granted,'' says Deberry, looking down at the collection she wears often. ``Somebody can always step up and beat you on any given day.''
But that doesn't happen often to ODU in the CAA. In Deberry's five years, the Lady Monarchs have lost six league games, five in 1991-92, when she redshirted. This year no CAA team has been a threat. James Madison, which defeated ODU in a regular-season game last year, got as close as anyone with a 13-point loss last week, but the Lady Monarchs' average margin of victory in conference games remained a whopping 43 points.
Deberry is a big reason why. She is not among the league leaders in any statistical category. She doesn't have the numbers of a Clarisse Machanguana, who leads ODU with an 18.3-point scoring average. She's not flashy like Ticha Penicheiro, who leads the CAA in assists and steals. She doesn't take over the paint like Nyree Roberts, who leads the league in blocks. Nor does she have the physical presence of a Mery Andrade, the CAA's Rookie of the Year, whose 11.2 points per game rank second on the team.
No, instead, Deberry does a lot of everything, and she does them all well.
``Shonda can play any position that you ask her to play because she knows it's in the best interest of the basketball team,'' ODU coach Wendy Larry says of Deberry, a starter the last two years. ``She's played the point for us, she's played the two (shooting guard) for us, she's come off the bench for us, she started for us, she's rebounded for us.''
Deberry is comfortable with a short jumper or shooting a trey. Averaging 9.6 points and 4.3 rebounds, she is remarkably consistent. In minutes played, her 23.7 average is third on the team, behind Penicheiro and Andrade, yet she has turned the ball over only 30 times, far fewer than any other starter.
``I don't have to dominate the spotlight; I'm very low key. The success of my team is the main focus for me,'' says Deberry, who won the Dean Ehlers Leadership award at Tuesday night's CAA banquet.
``I don't have to be the one that everybody always sees. It's a team. A team is not like tennis. Everybody contributes. If it's just cheering on the bench, that's a contribution, too. And that's how I see myself - wherever I can give anything.''
Deberry's not feeding you a line. She's used to playing in the shadows of great players, and it's never bothered her. Before Machanguana and Penicheiro, Celeste Hill was grabbing the limelight.
``Even in high school there were a couple of years that there were players that were the star kind and I was just in the back,'' says Deberry, the team MVP her junior and senior years at Berrien County High School in Alapaha, Ga. ``I have tried to be a well-rounded, complete player and not just have one thing I can do.''
Always smiling, her persona is something she attributes to her tight-knit family. Deberry has weathered no crises at ODU; she remembers her five years with fondness.
Yes, she remembers blowing her knee going for a layup in a pickup game the week before her first practice as a Lady Monarch, an injury that postponed her freshman season by a year. She felt crushed - for about a week.
``I'll never forget my mom talking to me and saying, `Shonda, it could've been worse. Thank God that you have the opportunity to get better and come back and play.' After that, I thought, `You know, she's right.' From then on, my whole outlook was very different.''
Larry calls Deberry ``the silent storm,'' the kind of player a coach will miss when she's gone. Deberry promises to hang around, for a little while at least. She'll finish her master's in ODU's human services counseling program next year, with plans to sit in the stands supporting the Lady Monarchs. Wearing her rings, of course, a collection she hopes will extend to the next hand.
Five CAA rings plus an NCAA championship ring?
``That would be, I mean, that would be . . .'' she struggles trying to find the words, ``the perfect exclamation mark to my five years here.'' ILLUSTRATION: HUY NGUYEN
The Virginian-Pilot
``I never take 'em for granted,'' Shonda Deberry, a fifth-year
senior guard, says of her CAA ring collection. Her quest for No. 5
begins at 1 p.m. today, vs. Richmond, at the ODU field house.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB