Crockam Returns to Court

Shelly Crockam thought her collegiate basketball days were over, too many forces pulling her away from the game.

She was a 30-year-old Air Force veteran.

She had a husband and three children.

She was more interested in textbooks than playbooks.

“When I came here, I had no intention of playing basketball at all,” Crockam said, sitting in a conference room at Cal State Northridge.

Was she in for a surprise.

Two nights ago, at the Pyramid in Long Beach, Crockam played college hoops again. She was there with the Matadors, a team she never planned to join, doing one of the things she loves most.

How Crockam got there is an example of life’s crazy bounces.

After attending Cal State San Bernardino and Antelope Valley College each for one year, in that order, Crockam transferred to Northridge, thinking only of finishing school.

But word soon filtered to the Matador coaches about this woman in a physical education basketball class who was no beginner. Next thing you knew, Crockam was earning a spot on the roster.

Even then, Crockam wasn’t sure she wanted to play. She had left the Air Force and gone to San Bernardino two years ago, a 5-foot-9 forward with good skills and high expectations. But she moved on after one season, angry and disappointed.

“I didn’t want to go through another experience like at San Bernardino,” Crockam said. “I busted my butt and never played. Here, nothing’s been promised but Coach Mike [Abraham] has given me an honest shot. . . . I also didn’t think I had time to play [at Northridge].”

She has made time. Somehow.

The round trip to Northridge from Edwards Air Force Base near Lancaster, where Crockam’s husband, Arthur, is a jet engine mechanic and where the family lives, is 160 miles.

That means Crockam is up at five each weekday morning, getting herself and her two daughters, Cierra, 8, and Ariel, 6, ready for school. Son A.J., 4, stays at home with a family friend.

Crockam, who is African American and who wants to become a teacher at a predominantly minority high school so she can also be a role model, doesn’t return home until night time.

“It’s important for my kids to see me in the morning, so we can curl up together,” she said. “I go home at night and still spend quality time with my family. Saturdays are pretty much devoted to my kids.”

For some, that kind of routine would be too consuming, too demanding. But not for Crockam, who learned about regimentation and discipline during 10 years in the Air Force, mostly in Japan and Germany. She went into the service after graduating from San Gorgonio High in San Bernardino.

“My parents couldn’t afford to send me to college, so I thought I would go see the world,” Crockam said. “The Air Force had bases in all those places oversees and I wanted to have that preparation of life’s experiences that would help me when I became a teacher.”

While based in Okinawa, Japan, Crockam met her husband and the two were later sent to Sembach, Germany. She worked there in the European headquarters for COMSEC, the military’s communications security branch, handling, among other things, the secret codes used by the U.S. armed forces.

She also played on the women’s basketball team at the base, which in 1991-92 won the U.S. Armed Forces European championships.

“I hope to bring leadership and experience to this team,” said Crockam, who for now is a backup. “I learned a long time ago you can be a key player and you don’t even have to play. You can lead by setting an example off the court as well as on the court.”