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It took just one visit to Chapel Hill, more than two decades ago, to convince Karen Shelton that she never wanted to leave. "When I saw the campus and the facilities and met the team," Shelton says, "I knew I could build a program here." Shelton took over the North Carolina field hockey program in 1981 and has led the Tar Heels to national prominence in the form of four NCAA Championships, six NCAA runner-up finishes, 15 Atlantic Coast Conference titles and 22 winning seasons. With a 3-1 victory over Wake Forest on Oct. 27, 1998, Shelton notched the 300th win of her career, all at UNC. She hit the 350-win mark on Oct. 25, 2001, when the Tar Heels earned a 3-0 win over Virginia. She heads into the 2005 season three wins away from 400. After 24 seasons in Chapel Hill, Shelton's career record stands at 397-109-9, a .778 winning percentage. She has been named National Coach of the Year three times and ACC Coach of the Year seven times, including 2004. "Karen has built a program our school is very proud of, both for the team's success on the field and for the way it represents our university," says UNC athletic director Dick Baddour. Not only has she built a strong program, she was a driving force behind construction of Francis E. Henry Stadium, which was dedicated as the home of the Tar Heels in the spring of 1999. With a capacity of 1,086, Henry Stadium also includes meeting rooms and locker rooms and is one of the finest facilities of its kind. In addition to achieving on the collegiate level, Shelton's players have excelled in national team play. A total of 21 players have been members of U.S. National Teams and at least one of Shelton's former players has been on every U.S. National Team since 1989. Many other Tar Heels have played for junior teams, and current squad members Laree Beans, Rachel Dawson, Ashley Judge, Heather Kendell and Brooke Miller are members of the 2005 Under-21 Team. Born Nov. 14, 1957, in Honolulu, Hawaii, Shelton spent the first 10 years of her life on Army bases from Aberdeen, Md., to El Paso, Texas. (Her late father, James, was a lieutenant colonel.) With four brothers and two sisters, she was never at a loss for playmates and enthusiastically participated in whatever sport the day would bring. She was in fifth grade when her father retired and the family moved to Pennsylvania. Shelton also played basketball and lacrosse and competed in track, but growing up in the cradle of field hockey, that was the game she grew to love. At West Chester State College, Shelton played on three national championship field hockey teams and one national championship lacrosse team. Three times she was named field hockey's national player of the year, a streak that has never been equaled and has been approached only by two-time winner Cindy Werley, a UNC player from 1993-97 who won the honor in 1996 and 1997. Shelton earned a bachelor's degree in health and physical education in 1979, then spent one year as assistant coach at Franklin & Marshall College while also teaching and coaching at Middle Township High School in New Jersey. She was a member of the U.S. National Team from 1977-84 and started for the squad that won a bronze medal, the nation's highest finish in Olympic competition, at the Los Angeles Summer Games in 1984. Her international experience also includes the 1979 and 1983 World Cup competitions and American Cup tournaments in 1982 and 1983. She was U.S. Field Hockey's Athlete of the Year in 1983 and was inducted into the USFHA Hall of Fame in 1989 for her achievements as a player. In 1999, she was named the Delaware County Field Hockey Athlete of the Millennium by the Delaware County Daily Times. Away from field hockey, Shelton enjoys reading and spending time at the beach. She is married to Willie Scroggs, a senior associate athletic director at UNC who coached the Carolina men's lacrosse team from 1979-90. Under Scroggs' direction, the Tar Heels won NCAA titles in 1981, '82 and '86. Their son, William, is 15. Even in the offseason, however, field hockey is never far from Shelton's mind. In the summers of 1999 and 2000, she coached the Southern Charm to the championship of the United Airlines Field Hockey League, the USFHA elite summer program. She served as assistant coach in 2001, 2002 and 2003, as the Charm took three more crowns, and was co-head coach of the team in 2004. She has served as director of Olympic development camps on the Carolina campus and helped bring the U.S. National Team to Chapel Hill for training in 1994. That summer, UNC played host to both the men's and women's national teams from Great Britain as well as the Jamaican women's squad. In 1996, Chapel Hill was Great Britain's pre-Olympic training site. Shelton currently serves on the USFHA Coaching Committee. A very visible ambassador for UNC and its athletic programs, Shelton was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece, a campus honor society, in March of 2002. |
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