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ABILENE - New York Times best-selling author Melanie Shankle will be the featured guest for Abilene Christian University's 'Root for the Home Team' celebration of its 2015-16 women's basketball season. The event is open to the public and takes place Thursday, April 21 at 7 p.m. at the Williams Performing Center Arts Center.
Tickets are $25 per person and can be purchased through acu.edu/basketball.
A San Antonio native, Shankle is the author of three books: Nobody's Cuter Than You, The Antelope in the Living Room, and Sparkly Green Evenings, and is currently writing a fourth. She also has written The Big Mama Blog since 2006 and been a past contributor to Praise and Coffee and the Pioneer Woman's blog.
Shankle is a nationally sought-after speaker and in recent weeks has been invited to speak at Texas A&M's Tell Your Story, the Fiesta of Faith at San Antonio's First Presbyterian Church, and Bloom Event at The Woodland's Crossroads Baptist Church.
The inspiration behind the banquet's theme came from a chapter in Shankle's book The Antelope in the Living Room. In Chapter 12, which is titled, 'Root, Root, Root for the Home Team', Shankle uses a personal anecdote to illustrate those moments when we we're in need of a cheerleader.
And in 2015-16 was there an easier team for the Key City to cheer for than Abilene Christian women's basketball?
Playing in front of some of the largest and loudest home crowds in the Southland Conference, head coach Julie Goodenough's Wildcats went 14-0 at home en route to winning the league championship and qualifying for the program's first-ever WNIT appearance.
Junior guard Alexis Mason was voted the Southland's Player of the Year and her teammates Suzzy Dimba and Sydney Shelstead also received all-conference recognition. Dimba was a Second Team All-Conference honoree and made the league's All-Defensive Team for the third consecutive year, while Shelstead was a Third Team All-Conference selection and member of the CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team.
Shelstead and the Wildcats were as successful in the classroom as they were on the court. Last fall they posted a 3.5 grade-point average and this spring three of starters (Shelstead, Mason and Suzzy Dimba) were tabbed Southland Conference All-Academic.
The Wildcats also took care of their communities and teammates. In addition to serving their friends at Disability Resources, Inc., ACU players welcomed Albany's Hannah Snyder onto their roster during a Team IMPACT Draft Day celebration, and later organized a GoFundMe.com site to raise over $4,000 to help cover a teammate's family-related medical expenses.
Goodenough was honored as the Southland Conference's Coach of the Year after her team went 26-4 in only its third year of NCAA DI competition, and soon afterward she was awarded a contact extension that will keep her at ACU through at least the 2019-20 season.
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Tickets are $25 per person and can be purchased through acu.edu/basketball.
A San Antonio native, Shankle is the author of three books: Nobody's Cuter Than You, The Antelope in the Living Room, and Sparkly Green Evenings, and is currently writing a fourth. She also has written The Big Mama Blog since 2006 and been a past contributor to Praise and Coffee and the Pioneer Woman's blog.
Shankle is a nationally sought-after speaker and in recent weeks has been invited to speak at Texas A&M's Tell Your Story, the Fiesta of Faith at San Antonio's First Presbyterian Church, and Bloom Event at The Woodland's Crossroads Baptist Church.
The inspiration behind the banquet's theme came from a chapter in Shankle's book The Antelope in the Living Room. In Chapter 12, which is titled, 'Root, Root, Root for the Home Team', Shankle uses a personal anecdote to illustrate those moments when we we're in need of a cheerleader.
And in 2015-16 was there an easier team for the Key City to cheer for than Abilene Christian women's basketball?
Playing in front of some of the largest and loudest home crowds in the Southland Conference, head coach Julie Goodenough's Wildcats went 14-0 at home en route to winning the league championship and qualifying for the program's first-ever WNIT appearance.
Junior guard Alexis Mason was voted the Southland's Player of the Year and her teammates Suzzy Dimba and Sydney Shelstead also received all-conference recognition. Dimba was a Second Team All-Conference honoree and made the league's All-Defensive Team for the third consecutive year, while Shelstead was a Third Team All-Conference selection and member of the CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team.
Shelstead and the Wildcats were as successful in the classroom as they were on the court. Last fall they posted a 3.5 grade-point average and this spring three of starters (Shelstead, Mason and Suzzy Dimba) were tabbed Southland Conference All-Academic.
The Wildcats also took care of their communities and teammates. In addition to serving their friends at Disability Resources, Inc., ACU players welcomed Albany's Hannah Snyder onto their roster during a Team IMPACT Draft Day celebration, and later organized a GoFundMe.com site to raise over $4,000 to help cover a teammate's family-related medical expenses.
Goodenough was honored as the Southland Conference's Coach of the Year after her team went 26-4 in only its third year of NCAA DI competition, and soon afterward she was awarded a contact extension that will keep her at ACU through at least the 2019-20 season.
More...