School: North Penn
BASKETBALL
Favorite athlete: Eric Bledsoe
Favorite team: Cleveland Browns
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Air-balling free throws!
Music on iPod: A little bit of everything
Future plans: Physical Therapy or Nutrition
Words to live by: 'Don't talk about it, be about it.'
One goal before turning 30: To be well off in my career.
One thing people don't know about me: I enjoy writing.
Dexter Shy, according to coach Ron Hassler, is what high school athletics should be about.
“Dexter is one of those special athletes that refuses to accept not doing his best,” the North Penn coach said. “His passion to succeed is contagious, and he has inspired players around him to play harder and become better people.
“For Dexter Shy, adversity is a challenge that he embraces and therefore makes him stronger. He is truly a coach’s player. Dexter has developed the qualities to succeed in life and has a bright future ahead of him.”
Shy’s present isn’t too bad either.
The North Penn senior has been a key to the Knights’ late-season surge and run for a state playoff berth. It’s not a coincidence that since Shy returned to the starting lineup, the Knights won 10 of 12 games and have lost just once in 11 games since falling to Central Bucks West despite Shy’s 18-point effort in his first start since coming back from surgery to repair a meniscus tear.
“He moved our team to a new level as we prepared for the district playoffs,” Hassler said. “When he is not scoring, he is using his 6-1 frame to take offensive fouls, blocking out someone six inches taller or diving for a loose ball.
“He spends much of his time talking on our match defense, making sure that everyone is in the correct alignment or just hustling to patch up an error. Dexter leaves no teammate out and makes sure that all our players feel included and important to our team.”
That’s high praise indeed for a senior captain who was sidelined until mid-January after tearing the meniscus in his right knee on June 7.
“I was working out before one of my spring games with one of the guys,” he recalled. “It was a simple drill, and I didn’t come down right.
“I thought I was going to stretch it out before the game and still be able to play. I was completely wrong.”
Shy visited several doctors.
“I didn’t like what any of them had to say,” he said. “Three of them said I tore my ACL. Two of them said I might not have, so I stuck with them. “
On July 2, he underwent surgery to repair what turned out to be a torn meniscus. He was left facing four to six months of rehab.
“I was pushing for four,” Shy said.
Michael Brooks, the father of teammates Sean and Wes Brooks, arranged to have Shy work with a physical therapist at the Physical Therapy and Wellness Institute in Lansdale.
“They worked me hard,” Shy said. “They attacked and never slowed down.
“I would be there three times a week for 3 ½ hours a day. It was definitely tough. There were days I didn’t want to go, days I wanted to sit home and do nothing, but I knew I couldn’t be back by November if I didn’t go, and I wanted to be back for the season more than anything.”
Making the injury particularly devastating was the fact that it came at a time when Shy appeared poised to have a breakout season.
“During last spring’s off-season, Dexter had exceeded the expectations and goals we had set for him,” Hassler said.
When tryout time came in November, Shy was given the green light to play. His spirit was willing, but his leg was not.
“We tried him a couple of times, and it was like he was playing on one-and-a-half legs,” Hassler said. “I’m watching him on the DVD after the game, and he’s getting a hand on every rebound.
“I said to my other guys, ‘This guy has one-and-a-half legs, and he’s getting a hand on them, and you have two healthy legs and can’t get a rebound.’ It was just pure effort. He’s 6-1 and lucky if he weighs 180, but he just battles away in there. He’s just a great kid to have on your team, win or lose. If you’re going to lose a game, you don’t mind losing with a kid like him.”
Although Shy was able to play only sporadically until late in the season, he found ways to contribute.
“He remained one of the leaders on the team, which is no easy task when you don’t get playing time,” Hassler said. “Dexter gained the respect of players, coaches and fans because no one worked harder, played less and maintained a more positive attitude.
“Some kids would drop their heads and go in the wrong direction, but he was always there cheering everyone on. When we scrimmaged, he was talking on the sidelines as if he was on the floor, helping kids make adjustments and that kind of thing.”
Shy admits that coming back from an injury was not easy.
“It was all a trust thing with myself,” he said. “I didn’t trust my knee to hold up at all. When we had sprints, I would go the opposite way just so I couldn’t have to cut back on that knee. I was afraid of it.
“Coach understood that. I was on the bike in the middle of practice to stay loose and just tried to stay around as much as possible because being around basketball and watching basketball is going to get me back into it faster than sitting at home not doing anything.
“The moment I could walk is when I started coming. I just knew I had to be there to watch the plays, to get my timing down and everything else if I wanted to come back and be effective.”
Shy has been nothing if not effective since his return to the lineup, and although he is capable of putting up numbers, he brings far more than scoring to the table. He is a leader on defense and will do whatever it takes to help his team win.
“He has added a spark to our team,” Hassler said. “He has a way of paying attention to the little details that make big differences in winning games.”
The Knights earned a share of the Continental Conference title and boast a 21-5 record heading into a playback game for the final spot in the state tournament.
“Honestly, I just care about us winning,” Shy said. “That’s the only thing that matters to me and all my teammates. We want to see how far we can go, so we keep pushing and keep working hard in practice.”
Interestingly, Shy – who played football from third through ninth grades - was a late arrival on the basketball scene.
“I was originally a football player, but I was a little too skinny for that,” he said. “It didn’t work out too well for me.
“My sister (Brittany Foye), who is four years older than me, played varsity basketball for North Penn, and she would pay me money to go outside and rebound for her while she shot the ball. She was a pretty good shooter, so I didn’t have to do too much work.”
By the time he was in sixth grade, Shy was playing basketball himself for North Penn YMCA’s AAU team. It wasn’t long before he became involved in Montgomery Township Basketball where he began playing with many of his present teammates.
“Running and the conditioning were never a problem,” Shy said of his transition to basketball. “It was just the coordination part – going from football where you’re just hitting people to catching the ball and using touch and all that. It was something different, and it was more of a challenge than football.”
Shy played for the freshman team when he was in ninth grade and the jayvee as a sophomore.
“When I came on board, Dexter was going to be a sophomore, and the jayvee coach I hired at that time had coached him in the middle school,” Hassler recalled. “He said, ‘Coach, I know you don’t know any of these kids, but I have to tell you something about Dexter. He’s going to end up being your team leader,’ and he was right on.”
As a junior, Shy – who saw some varsity playing time - stood tall when racial discrimination allegations by a disgruntled parent threatened to tear apart the program.
When television cameras showed up for a threatened walk-out by several players before the Knights’ game at Souderton, Shy decided it was time to speak up.
“Me and the only senior last year, T.J. Gill, pulled the guys into the back corner of the locker room,” he said. “We just sat there and talked.
“We just said, ‘We all started this together. We have to finish together.’ Luckily, they all stayed and didn’t walk off the court at the beginning of the game. There were some unrealistic demands being made, and we told them. Some of the guys understood, some of them didn’t.”
Hassler credits Shy for keeping the team together during its darkest hour.
“He just stepped up and said, ‘Some of these things aren’t right,’ and that’s hard to do,” the Knights’ coach said. “He was put in a position last year that he never should have been put in. No kid should ever be put in that kind of position, but he was strong enough to handle it.
“Whatever values he’s developed either through his family or on his own – they are tremendous values to have. If I was an employer, I’d hire him no matter what job because I know the job would get done to the best of his efforts.”
As for his future, Shy has his sights set on pursuing a career in physical therapy.
“I fell in love with it at PTW,” he said. “Just being around it – it seemed like something I wanted to do. All the guys at PTW were great, and I could see myself doing the same thing.”
Shy has applied to West Chester, IUP and Slippery Rock.
“I know Slippery Rock has a great physical therapy program, so I’m hoping that’s where I get in,” he said.
As for basketball, Shy hasn’t ruled out the possibility of playing.
“I think I’m going to a camp or two when the season is over, and I’ll see what happens there,” he said. “I’m mostly looking at schools that have a physical therapy program. If I can get basketball and a school that has a physical therapy program, that’s the best situation.”
When he’s not playing basketball, Shy helps out at the gym and also serves as referee of youth basketball games.
“He’s a good kid, and he’s got a great future ahead of him just because of his personality traits,” Hassler said. “He gets along with everybody. I don’t know of anybody that doesn’t like Dexter.
“He’s just the type of kid you’d take home.”
And that says all anyone needs to know about Dexter Shy.
