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Prep Confidential

Jackson's 5 Part XVII

Posted by: Marcus Jackson

Wednesday, October 1, 2008 7:16 PM

Each week staff writer Marcus Jackson will pose five questions to an area prep athlete. This week it's Champaign Central volleyball standout, Shelby Strang.

MJ: Your dad Dave (Ole Miss) and brother Tucker (Arkansas Tech) both played baseball in college and your brother Cam plays now at Eastern Illinois. Who’s the best athlete in your family?

SS: I’d have to say me, I pretty much taught my brother everything they know. But they’d probably disagree. They’d probably say that they taught me everything. It comes up a lot and we fight about it a lot.

MJ: What’s it like having your mom as a coach?

SS: It’s nice, the support’s nice and she’s always there for me.

MJ: Is it tough at times separating the mother-daughter and player-coach relationship?

SS: Yeah, sometimes it’s at practice for her being my coach and my mom, too. Her opinions aren’t always the same as I might want them to be. As a coach she sees things differently as a mom would but it’s nice to be able to talk as the coach and player, too.

MJ: I’ve heard some guys come to your volleyball games dressed in weird costumes. What’s the best one you’ve seen?

SS: Two of my guy friends dressed up as super heroes and one was “Spectacular S” for Shelby and one was “Amazing A” for my friend Andrea

MJ: What’s it like having that kind of support?

SS: It’s fun. They definitely are yelling during games and it helps us get pumped up.

MJ: The football team has lost two in a row. Any chance you can get in there and give those guys a pep talk?

SS: I try. I give them crap about it so hopefully that will change this weekend.

MJ: Do you have plans to play volleyball in college?

SS: I do plan on playing. I’m just figuring that out right now.

MJ: Do you guys do anything weird or fun before games to relax yourself, or get ready?

SS: Yeah, we have these dance things we do before games to get pumped. One’s called “Salad”. It’s just kind of been around. The other one’s called “Pony”. We do those for fun.

MJ: How do you feel about the season you’re having so far?

SS: We’re doing good. We haven’t reached our full potential as a team or anything, but we definitely have the ability to be really good, we’re still switching people around, so hopefully we’ll start playing pretty well soon.