The University of Mississippi Athletics
Coming Full Circle
4/23/2001 | Track and Field
April 23, 2001
OXFORD, Miss. -
Coming out high school, the world was his. James Shelton had the kind of high school career most people only dream about.
Shelton was ranked among the top three track athletes in the nation prior to attending Ole Miss. He won a gold medal and a bronze medal at the Junior Pan American games. He was the Gatorade Athlete of the Year in 1999 and tied the 20-year old Mississippi state record in the 100 meters with the former world's fastest man and Olympic medalist Calvin Smith. Shelton was selected as an All-American USA Track and Field, Track & Field News and National Scholastic. He was the 1999 national champion in the 100 meters and won four state championships. And those are just his track accolades.
Shelton also starred on the football and baseball fields as well as the basketball court. He was named to the football and baseball All-District teams all four years of high school and earned two All-State selections in football.
Shelton also was a good student at Northeast Lauderdale High School, located in Toomsuba, Miss. He won the Kodak Young Leader Award, was selected for Who's Who Among American High School Students, awarded the All-American Scholar Award and the National Scholar Athlete Award.
The Rebel sophomore sprinter accomplished all that in just four short years, so upon entering Ole Miss in the Fall of 1999, Shelton thought four more great years were surely ahead of him.
"I was excited to come to Ole Miss," said Shelton, who is majoring in business. "I had a lot of confidence, maybe too much."
It did not take Shelton long to figure out he would not be able to survive on what he did in high school. It was obvious to him very quickly that he was going to have to work hard to earn his keep as a Rebel.
During his first week in Oxford, Shelton had a few eye-opening experiences. He went to pick up a scholarship check and realized they did not even have him listed in the computer so essentially he was nobody. He also got into a car wreck. Neither of these experiences ruined his spirits, but they did prove to him that it was not going to be a breeze in college.
"As soon as I got here I found out that college is not as easy as high school," said Shelton. "Everything had come fairly easy for me before and I found out in my first week in college that that was not going to be the way it was here. I knew I was going to have to work hard to be at the top in everything."
Shelton completed his first semester of school and dove straight into his first indoor track season as a Rebel. He had a great indoor season, provisionally qualifying for the 2000 NCAA Indoor Track Championships in the 55 meters. He was the second leading scorer for Ole Miss and was back on track, or so he thought.
Shelton ran well in his first outdoor meet of the 2000 season before tearing his hamstring in his second meet. He was forced to sit out the remainder of the 2000 outdoor season, something that was very difficult.
"I had never missed anything before," said Shelton. "It was very hard to sit out and not be able to compete. I had never been injured before, it was a very difficult time for me."
Shelton went to work to rehab his hamstring, but times were tough. Sometimes the work he was doing did not seem to be paying off and he had thoughts of quitting.
"I hated being injured," said Shelton. "It was painful and discouraging. I thought about giving up running all together, but I decided not to give up."
Shelton worked hard all summer and all fall to get back to 100 percent. And the hard work has been paying off for him ever since. He earned his first All-America honor at the 2001 NCAA Indoor Championships by placing second in the 60 meters. He has followed an outstanding indoor season up with a provisional qualification for the 2001 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 100 meters and is a member of the Rebel 4x100-meter relay team that is very near qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
Although he put in the hard work and sweat to get his body back to competitive form, Shelton credits his teammates, coaches and family for providing the daily encouragement he needed to make it back.
"My teammates and coaches really pushed me to get my hamstring healthy," said Shelton. "They made me want to work hard. And my mom was there for me every step of the way. She knew track was the best thing for me, so she would not let me give up."
Now that Shelton has come full circle from the glory days of high school, he hopes to again have the world in his hands.