Tacoma's Sheltons: A family that plays together

At the end of a cul-de-sac on Tacoma’s East Side lives one of the city’s most vibrant, successful and well-regarded families of athletes in recent times.

It is a house bursting with framed photos, past newspaper clips, award plaques and old sports T-shirts for Alan Shelton, his wife, Shari, and their six children – Aaron, Aubrey, Ben, Austin, Karina and Kaleb.

Everybody is fully grown now – twins Karina and Kaleb are in their senior year of college – but when the children get together and the topic shifts to their playing days at Lincoln High School, playful banter accompanies the reminiscing. And the house comes alive – with Dad’s big, booming, infectious laughter filling the living room.

Aaron, 31, the oldest, was the tone-setting sibling with a relentless work ethic, even if he was not the most talented athletically. By all accounts, Aubrey, 29, and Kaleb, 22, were the best basketball players of the bunch. Ben, 27, arguably had the best prep career as a three-sport standout. Austin, 25, veered into distance running. And Karina, 22, set new levels of excellence for the Abes in girls golf.

Alan and Shari have attended a good portion of their children’s activities – and still do. Kaleb plays in a University of Puget Sound basketball playoff game tonight, and Aubrey coaches Lincoln in the first round of a Class 3A regional Friday night.

Last estimation was that the parents have been to more than a thousand games.

“It’s just a priority,” Alan said. “Some things you change your schedule for.”

FAMILY FORMS

Two paths converged from thousands of miles apart.

Alan lived in Tokyo, where his parents taught in a seminary. He was a shooting guard at Christian Academy, which won the Far East championship for U.S. private and military schools in the Japan islands.

Even though Shari was born in Bremerton, she grew up in Ketchikan, Alaska, where her father was a ferry captain.

The couple met as first-year students at Seattle Pacific University in 1972.

“I saw her in freshman orientation,” Alan said, “and I was smitten.”

The couple wed in 1976, when Shari came home for winter break after teaching English in Okinawa, Japan. A year later, the newlyweds returned to the Northwest after Alan was accepted to Oregon Heath & Science University School of Medicine in Portland.

Their first child, Aaron, was born in Portland. After moving to Wichita, Kan., in 1981 for Alan’s residency, sons Aubrey and Ben came along.

The family of five came to Tacoma in 1984, when Alan accepted a family practice position with the Puyallup Tribal Health Authority. He has worked there the past 28 years. And his clinic is located five minutes from the house.

Very spiritual, Alan and Shari made it a priority to not only live in the community in which the family served, but they also decided their children would attend public schools in their neighborhood, even if they could afford otherwise.

“That family starts with the parents living out their principles, and that is what the kids … have seen day-to-day since they were little,” said Will Jones, who spent his childhood with Alan in Japan, and now lives in the same East Side neighborhood. “Alan and Shari have both lived the way they believed in, and that is being part of the community, bringing about change and caring for people.”

EARLY ATHLETIC ENDEAVORS

Close to the family’s driveway is a steep stairwell that leads to an abandoned elementary school.

Growing up, the six children raced up those 177 steps many times, seeing if they could beat one another’s best marks.

“Austin had the record – he can get up there in 23 seconds,” Kaleb said. “He goes three or four steps at a time.”

Jealousy among the children hardly existed. Spats rarely occurred, and that is saying something considering how competitive the six of them were.

“I can count on one hand how many fights we got into,” Aubrey said. “We love each other and root for each other. We had each others’ backs – and it all started with Aaron, who was a humble guy.”

Basketball was a mainstay for all six. All of them played, and scored, in a Class 4A state tournament for Lincoln. Aubrey (2001) and Ben (2001, 2002) won state titles for the Abes. Combined, the siblings played in 35 state tournament games.

But each one of them played a sport different from the others: Aaron (1996-99) was a power-hitting first baseman in baseball and three-year tennis letterman; Aubrey (1998-2001) was a middle distance runner while Austin (2002-05) and Kaleb (2004-08) excelled at longer races; Ben (2000-03) was a quarterback in football, and set many of the school’s existing career passing marks; and Karina (2004-08) was the first Lincoln girls golfer to advance to the state tournament.

“They were all very disciplined. They had desire and love for the games they did,” said Char Davenport, a former Lincoln athletic director. “That comes from the parenting. Dr. Shelton is an avid sports fan and loves to see his kids involved in stuff.”

Few things have brought the family more satisfaction than winning two titles last summer at the Spokane Hoopfest, the largest three-on-three street basketball tournament in the world.

Aubrey, Ben and Aaron had played two seasons in the Elite Division prior to last summer, and had gone 2-2. Before the 2011 event, the brothers met to figure out who would play.

“We had to draw straws, because we could not figure out who were the best players,” Aaron said, facetiously. “Somehow, Kaleb got involved.”

The team appropriately dubbed as “Mammasboys” went 6-1 and advanced to the Elite Division title game against two-time defending champion Tonicx, led by former Gonzaga standout David Pendergraft.

The game was broadcast on local television. Mammaboys won, 20-13.

“Thing with Hoopfest, it is very, very physical. There were three referees, but they let a lot of stuff off the ball, so it was a wrestling match. I had bruises for the next month,” Aubrey said. “But we are pretty good at that. We had three guys who bang.”

On another court, Alan and children Aaron, Austin and Karina won the family co-ed division.

LAST PLAYER STANDING

Kaleb’s illustrious four-year career at UPS is winding down, starting tonight with a Northwest Conference playoff game against Whitman at Memorial Fieldhouse.

That is how his tenure started in 2008-09. He was a freshman coming off the bench for a Loggers squad that became the first team to go 16-0 in league play. UPS ended up advancing to the NCAA Division III tournament that year.

After that, it was back-to-back losing seasons – until now.

This week, UPS was rewarded for its second-place finish by placing Kaleb on the all-NWC first team for the first time in his career.

“He’s had the best season of his career,” UPS coach Justin Lunt said. “It may not show in the scoring, but it has in the wins and the consistency.”

Those who have attended Loggers games this season also have noticed a difference in Kaleb’s name. After marrying his longtime sweetheart, Jazmin, last summer, the two decided to take the hyphenated last name of “Shelton-Johnson.”

“I have kind of a traditional family … but she brought it up and wanted to carry on with her family tradition (Johnson),” Kaleb said. “So we picked ‘Shelton-Johnson.’ We like being the only Shelton-Johnsons. We like explaining we are more of the modern, gender-equity generation.”

COACHING THE ALMA MATER

Kaleb is not the only one alive in the postseason. So is Lincoln High in the 3A regional tournament – now coached by Aubrey. The Abes play O’Dea on Friday night for a trip to the Tacoma Dome.

Like his younger brother, Aubrey also played at UPS. In the summer of his first season with the Loggers, Aubrey coached a team of eighth- and ninth-graders at an NBC camp, and guided them to the championship.

“I had never coached before,” Aubrey said. “But it was almost as fun as playing.”

So when he finished playing in 2005, he spent one season as a graduate assistant at UPS, then took the head coaching job at Washington High School – going 2-19.

When Tim Kelly left Lincoln to take the Curtis coaching job in 2007, Aubrey was hired to steer the Abes.

“Coaching-wise, (Aubrey) has that real bulldog mentality. He has the work ethic, and you know he wants his kids to do it the right way,” Kelly said. “It is a tough place to coach … but he has done a tremendous job.”

Aubrey is not the only coach in the family. Ben is a physical-education teacher at Stewart Middle School, which is a feeder to Lincoln. He coaches boys and girls basketball.

Thinking about the impact her two sons are making fills Shari with emotion.

“I am thinking (less) of basketball, but just Aubrey being at Lincoln, and teaching – it is not an easy place,” Shari said. “It is almost a ministry or calling for him to be there.”

NEW BEGINNINGS

One subject strikes immediate pause in all of the Sheltons – what will Alan and Shari do once all the children’s playing days are over?

They still have a whole spring season to mull that over as Karina finishes up her golf career at Pacific Lutheran.

“It will be different,” Shari said.

They still have Aubrey and Ben in the coaching business. After every Abes game, Aubrey and Alan talk.

“He offers advice, criticism and suggestions,” Aubrey said. “It is the same as when I was a player.”

Next season, Aaron’s oldest child, Aiden, will start basketball at a local Boys & Girls Club. Alan likely will coach that team, just like he did with his own children.

“I have no idea what they are going to do with their lives, or how they will spend their weekends,” Kaleb said. “There have always been games – from Aaron’s first game until now. It is kind of weird to think about, but we all have other things to do with our lives.

“But we still have Hoopfest.”

Todd Milles: 253-597-8442 todd.milles@thenewstribune.com