Former St. Joe stars Dena Jarrells and Paige Shy, along with former Wyoming East standout Emily Saunders and Parkersburg’s Shay-Lee Kirby are coming back to the Mountain State.
The quartet of former West Virginia stars now all play at Youngstown State. And they have all decided to come home for a couple of day camps, June 21-22 at Spring Valley High School. On June 21, elementary school players will be there from 12 pm to 3 pm. Middle school players will attend the camp on June 22 from 12 pm to 3 pm. The cost of the camp is $25 and all proceeds will Special Olympics West Virginia.
Jarrells said that she hopes the camp attendees will hopefully be inspired by the four West Virginia players to keep pushing to go to college.
“Seeing us there will hopefully push them to work harder,” she said. “We want to show them that it is possible. Being able to get an education is the most important thing for them. Until you try, there is no reason to say that you shouldn’t.”
All four players initially started at other schools. Jarrells was at Chattanooga, Shy was at Marshall, Saunders was at Tennessee and Kirby was at Austin Peay.
Shy was the first to transfer to Youngstown State. Then Jarrells decided to enter the transfer portal when her coach at Chattanooga was fired. She called Shy to tell her that she was in the portal. Within minutes, she was called and offered by the coach at Youngstown State. Kirby and Saunders soon followed suit. Suddenly, a huge portion of the Penguins’ roster was made up of players from West Virginia.
“We all knew each other from AAU, so it was a natural fit,” said Jarrells.
Jarrells also state that any camper attending will be able to ask for tickets if they choose to go up to Youngstown State and watch the Penguins this upcoming season.
Both Jarrells and Saunders are majoring in a Masters in Special Education, so they decided that the proceeds would go to Special Olympics West Virginia, which will help other athletes in the state.
This will be a great chance for attendees to get up close and personal to learn from some of the best players from the Mountain State and will be an incredible opportunity for young athletes.
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