By JUSTIN CONN
Talk to Zhitavion Shelby and it’s hard to believe that he once had what former MacArthur teammate Zye Boey called, “a freshman attitude.”
Approach Shelby at a track meet now – even if he’s hurt his ankle, or can’t quite hit the jump he’s look-ing for – and he’ll smile, shake your hand and ask how things are going.
Despite the previously immature attitude, Boey was always sure that Shelby would become a track star at MacArthur – and he did. Shelby followed up last year’s three-medal junior season by qualifying for the Class 3A state meet in three events for the second straight year and taking home a fourth-place finish in the triple jump. That earned him the H&R Macon County Boys Track Athlete of the Year honor.
“I was a senior when he was a freshman and from the first time I saw him run, I thought, ‘This guy has talent,’ ” said Boey, now a two-time Ohio Valley Conference Track Athlete of the Year at Eastern Illinois University. “He could do everything. I remember saying, ‘Coach, mold this one. He’s going to be a great one.’ ”
Shelby has loved track ever since he lined up against cousin LaDarion Shelby for the 100-meter dash in fifth grade. He pulled a muscle in his leg and lost that race – “my little cousin was doing some trash-talking after that one” – but four years later he placed fourth in the long jump and was part of a 400 relay that was seventh at the eighth-grade state meet.
“From that time on, it’s been track, track and more track,” Shelby said. “I played other sports, but track was always my pride and joy.”
As a freshman, the success continued. He was part of a MacArthur 800 relay team that qualified for state. Boey made efforts to steer Shelby in the right direction, but wasn’t sure if he was getting through.
“I tried to give him any tips I could and I tried to lead by example, but he had this freshman attitude where if things didn’t go right, he’d be upset,” Boey said. “I tried to always show him that even when you have a bad meet, you keep your cool. Don’t throw a fit. And I talked to him about being a freshman and getting beat by seniors – of course they were going to be better. They’re older. But he’d just get this atti-tude where he didn’t care about anything.”
Shelby didn’t show it, but he was listening.
“He may not know this, but Zye Boey was a big role model for me,” said Shelby, who plans to reunite with Boey at Eastern next season. “My freshman year, he saw how good I was doing and he kind of gave me a heads up on some things and told me some things to look out for. Whenever I see him now, I give him a handshake to kind of let him know.”
Boey has noticed the transformation.
“I’ve talked to him a few times the last couple of months, and he’s developed into a great young man,” Boey said. “He talks in a professional manner, like he knows the real world is coming and it’s time to face his opportunities.”
Shelby credits Boey for helping him mature as an athlete and a person, but he’s not the only one. Shelby has the enviable knack of taking something positive from each of the people who touch his life.
There’s his step dad, Patrick Tyler, who got him into running in the first place.
“He would get up early in the morning and take me on a jog – even though he smoked cigarettes,” Shelby said. “When we first started, he’d see me behind him, fighting to keep up. But by the time I got into fifth and sixth grade, I started taking off on him.”
When he got into high school, there were his track coaches – Micah Sheppard and Dion Simmons. Sim-mons was his adviser – “I could count on his advice without hesitation,” Shelby said – and Sheppard was his motivator.
“Coach Sheppard is a football coach, so at times he would motivate harshly,” Shelby said. “But I was also motivated by the fact he trusted us. He’d give you the workouts, but he wouldn’t hound us. The work we put in and how good we wanted to be was up to us.”
The maturity it took to dedicate himself to those workouts, Shelby said, developed from the relationships he had with mom (Adair Green) and dad (Elga Shelby).
“My mom is someone who I can trust completely. If there’s something I wanted to talk about, I never had to hold back anything,” Shelby said. “My dad – he showed me how to be a man.”
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