MICHAEL SHEA
By Terry Mosher
Editor, Sports Paper
Michael Shea does not get a lot of publicity – none, in fact – for being the top high school basketball scorer – boy or girl – on the Olympic Peninsula. It’s no fault of his. His scoring average of 24.2 points a game does not get reported to the area’s daily newspaper (Kitsap Sun).
And that is what happens sometimes when you are playing for a school the size of Crosspoint Academy (70 students in classes 9-11). The Warriors at playing as 1B school, the smallest classification in the state as reported by the governing body, Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA).
Shea should get publicity, though, for not only his basketball skills, but for maintaining a perfect grade-point average (4.0) at the private school that is located in Chico. Not many students do what he is doing; getting the best grades you can while taking tough AP courses. He has taken Spanish for four years and can speak the language.
That GPA is more important to him than his scoring average, although he is proud of that, too. The fact is the 6-foot tall shooting guard for the Crosspoint Warriors will likely not play basketball in college, where he will concentrate on his academics as he pursues a possible career as a doctor.
But for now, Shea is one tough hombre on the basketball court. Earlier this basketball season Shea poured in a career high 40 points in a 78-68 loss to Oakville, and he has also scored in the 30s a couple times.
“He’s a very passionate player,” says his coach Rick Walker. “He wears his emotions on his sleeve – he doesn’t hide them – so he leaves it all out on the court. He gives 100 percent and you can see that in the way he plays. He thinks he can get every shot, can make every shot and there is not a defensive assignment he can’t stop.
“He’s just a will-to-win type guy.”
Shea, the son of Jeff and Jill Shea (there also is a younger brother, Brandon), arrived at Crosspoint Academy as a ninth-grader, transferring in from John Sedgwick Junior High in the South Kitsap School District (the family lives in Port Orchard). He was on the junior varsity at Sedgwick, and was more of a role player for the Generals, but with the Warriors he is a team leader.
Not one to back away from work, Shea has worked hard on his game, including spending time with the West Side Hoops program. Tarence Mosley, now the varsity assistant to the Olympic High School boys basketball program, coached at West Side Hoops and became impressed with Shea.
“He’s a very, very, very hard working young man,” says Mosley. “He does not like to disappoint. He’s a hustle guy who always is going to be in the right spot at the right time.”
Shea, who averages five rebounds and two steals a game, is good in transition. He also is a good catch-and-slash guy who has the quickness to beat defenders off the dribble. But if the dribble drive is not there, Shea can also pull up and hit the three-point shot.
“He’s a scrappy kind of guy,” says Mosley. “He’s going 100 miles an hour non-stop. He gives it to you on both ends of the court.”
Shea also has played soccer for the Warriors, as a defender, mid-fielder and forward. This past season he was more of a scoring forward, which kind of fits in what he is on the basketball court.
Because he has good speed and quickness, Shea is thinking of going out for the Warriors’ track and field team in the spring and see if he can make the state meet in the short sprints.
When his school year is done, Shea will move on to the academic side of things. With his GPA he can get in most schools, but he prefers to stay away from the big schools. Right now it appears Gonzaga is his first choice, although that can change depending on what school gives the most academic scholarship money.
He also has been looking at Seattle University, Santa Clara and Pepperdine.
“I’ll just focus on school,” Shea says. “I’m not really worried about playing basketball in college. That’s not where my focus lies. I’d like to be a doctor.”
Mosley adds, “He is a really, really good kid. He’s not going to play basketball in college, but he’s going to be successful whether it is in basketball or in life. He will be successful just because of his work ethic.”