By Sherrie Norris
Where would Watauga High athletics be without
Dan Shelton?
That‘s a question asked by many players, parents and
school personnel.
Dan Shelton. Photo
by Mark Mitchell
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Practically a full-time volunteer who also
works 40-plus hours a week to make a living, Shelton, is
ending his third year as president of the WHS Booster Club
and has had a huge impact on the local sports arena for
a number of years.
“Dan has devoted so much time to the WHS athletic program
and has been such a committed supporter of all the
Pioneer athletic teams,” Lavell Hall, WHS athletic
director, said.
“With his leadership, the boosters have been able to
supply many items that our coaches feel directly influence
the success we’ve enjoyed. I have thoroughly enjoyed
my association with Dan, and am grateful for all the help
he’s provided me personally, as well as the Athletic
Department.” Shelton also raises funds by selling
banner sponsorships and handles the All Sport Season Pass
(tickets) sales and delivery
It was while his older son ,Walker, was in middle school
that he began filming his football games at the request
of Mike Hudson, then football coach at Hardin Park, who
after joining the coaching staff at WHS, again asked Shelton
to film all varsity football games.
What started as a simple task in 2001 has since evolved
into not only filming the games, but in recent years to
include digital film editing of the games after each Friday
night competition, an arduous task that often sees Shelton
leaving the field house in the wee hours of Saturday mornings
after making sure individual plays are highlighted, DVDs
burned for coaches review and grading, and preparing VHS/
DVDs for the opponent of the next Friday’s game.
He also produces year-end highlight DVDs and assists in
making DVDs for senior players to send to college coaches
for recruiting.
In 2003, Shelton was asked by Bobby Jones (then men’s
varsity basketball coach) to film the basketball games,
which he did during Walker’s senior year, and has been
filming (women’s and men’s varsity) games ever
since.
With Shelton’s guidance, the booster club recently
purchased digital editing software for basketball and expanded
it to include soccer, track, volleyball, wrestling and baseball.
For home varsity football and baseball games, Shelton arrives
early to set up concessions.
On baseball game days, he makes sure the ballpark is ready
— trash cans out, trash picked up, bathrooms stocked
— and is always eager to help coach Hardee and the
team.
His younger son, Chris, a junior at WHS, is a valuable baseball
player at WHS this year.
Walker, who played both basketball and baseball at WHS,
is now a senior at ASU.
Even before his “second career” as filmmaker,
Shelton had earlier started working the public address system,
scoreboard and music for baseball during Walker’s junior
year, which he still does, too.
He also organized three fundraising golf tournaments for
baseball over the years, one of which provided money to
renovate the clubhouse (press box and dressing room), a
project spearheaded by Johnny Oakes and Ernie McGuire
“Funds from another golf tournament helped build the
baseball concession stand, that project led by Ronnie Greene,”
Shelton said.
In 2004, Shelton received the well-deserved William C Ross
Award for service to athletics, presented by Lavell Hall.
Shelton said, “I feel it’s important to give time,
to volunteer to a cause of interest. After 20-plus years
of being a volunteer firefighter, it did not feel right
for me not to be involved in something. Having my two sons
playing sports at WHS, it just seemed natural to me to become
involved.”
When attending his very first booster club meeting, he asked
how he could help. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
“Schools need parental involvement that is constructive
and positive,” Shelton said. “In fact, the booster
club could use a good handful of parents right now to step
up and help out. Until you become involved, you have no
idea at all what it takes to make an athletic program work
and be successful like Watauga athletics.”
Shelton said that being around Watauga athletics allows
him to see a side of the kids that sometimes their own parents
don’t see.
“We have great kids playing sports at Watauga. Our
kids here are truly student-athletes, but you also see a
different side of the coaches, faculty and staff, too. We
are so very lucky, too, to have great teachers, coaches,
staff and administrators at Watauga High School,” he
said.
Rob Sanders, men’s basketball coach at WHS, said, “Dan
Shelton gives an amazing amount of time to the athletic
department at WHS. As our booster club president,
he not only conducts the business of the meetings, he also
takes care of the major fundraiser the club does every year,
the selling of the banners that hang in the gym. …
Dan gives an enormous amount of time and energy to make
our athletic department the best that it can be.”
“If we have a computer issue, Dan is there for us.
If we need funds from the booster club, Dan is there for
us. If we need technical support from a nonlocal company,
Dan makes the calls for us. He makes my job as a basketball
coach so much easier than it could be. He has game
film ready immediately. He keeps me up-to- date with the
latest in software. However, Dan’s greatest attribute
is the fact that he loves the kids. This school would
not be the same without the help of Dan Shelton.”
Raised in Greensboro, Shelton graduated from Page High School
in 1979, where he served as an athletic trainer. He was
chosen to be the trainer for the N.C Shrine Bowl football
team in 1978, his senior year. He graduated from ASU in
1983 with a degree in business administration.
While at ASU, he drove a school bus at Hardin Park and WHS
and worked as a resident assistant in the dorms.
He married Lisa, his high school sweetheart in 1983, after
college graduation and accepted his first job with Cannon
Memorial Hospital in Banner Elk as patient accounts manager
from 1983-87. (Incidentally, he supervised this reporter
in her job as emergency-admissions clerk during that time.)
In 1983, Shelton also joined the Boone Fire Department as
a volunteer firefighter, retiring 20 years later. He served
as department treasurer, completed classes to become a certified
firefighter and certified fire instructor and was also was
an emergency medical technician.
After leaving Cannon Memorial, he worked in insurance before
actually joining Insurance Services Office in 1991. Today,
he is a senior field representative focusing on loss prevention,
loss control work and underwriting inspections for property
insurance companies. He is also a certified fire protection
specialist with the National Fire Protection Association
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