ALPINE, Utah — Shari Kelsch loves to win. Her all-out style on the basketball court shows it.

Photo by Julie Dockstader Heaps

Shari Kelsch, 24, displays gold medal and MVP trophy while standing on family's basketball court in Alpine, Utah. She scored 97 points total during the First World Deaf Basketball Championships in Athens, Greece. Two weeks later, she entered Missionary Training Center for Oregon Portland (ASL) Mission.

But the 24-year-old is the opposite of many of today's athletes. She's probably the first to congratulate — or console — the competition. She doesn't party, doesn't swear, lives a morally clean life — and doesn't hesitate to challenge others to do the same.

The 5-foot-10-inch power forward is also different in one other way. She doesn't hear the cheering crowds. She feels them. If the crowd jumps to its feet, she feels the vibrations in the floor.

Shari is deaf. And as a member of the U.S.A. deaf women's basketball team, she led the way to the title of the First Deaf World Championships in Athens, Greece, July 19-27. After her team defeated Lithuania, 85-31, in the finals, Shari, a member of the Alpine 8th Ward, Alpine Utah North Stake, was awarded the tournament's "Most Valuable Player" status and received all-star honors.

"We knew we had a good team," she said at her parents' home in Alpine, south of Salt Lake City. "We went out and played hard and did our best. We had lots of fun. It was a blast."

Shari didn't have much time to celebrate, however. Just two weeks after coming home from Greece, she entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, in preparation to serve in the Oregon Portland (American Sign Language) Mission. Last spring, after she received her missionary call, Jack Lamberton, president of the U.S.A. Deaf Basketball teams, called Shari. He had seen her play on the Utah deaf squad in the national tournament in Indiana earlier this year and wanted her on the national squad in Athens. She would return just in time for her Aug. 14 Missionary Training Center entry date.

"Everything just worked out perfectly," Shari said. "I thought it would be a good pre-mission type of experience. I knew a lot of the players were not LDS. My coach (Deborah Ayres) is a convert of five years." (Lance Allred, a member of the University Ward, Salt Lake Central Stake, was a member of the U.S.A. deaf men's team, which finished second in the men's tournament.)

Shari stood out in Greece, both athletically and spiritually. In five games verses the Ukraine (twice), Lithuania (twice), and Greece, she netted 97 points. At one point, an opposing player became so frustrated that she kicked Shari from behind. The missionary-to-be did not retaliate.

"Shari was simply a role model player," Mr. Lamberton told the Church News. "She always gave 110 percent on the court, as well as off the court. She played with abandon on every play and with great success. Her MVP award speaks for itself!"

Her example also spoke for itself. "I had a chance to kneel in the hotel room and say a prayer. I hoped I could be an example," she said. At first, though, other athletes didn't know what to think of this young woman from Utah. "I was nervous I wouldn't fit in. They were shocked at the things I hadn't done — drinking, smoking, even swearing."

They asked why. She told them about the gospel and her values. They called her a "Molly Mormon." But soon Shari noticed when she was offered an alcoholic drink members of her team would stand up for her. "During the last week, others came up to me and said they were grateful and said I should stay the way I was.

"When I went to Greece, I was really naive. I didn't realize how much immoral things go on," Shari said, her eyes filling with tears. "It just breaks my heart because I want people to know the happiness I have. You can have a fun life without drinking, and by being morally clean."

Photo courtesy Kelsch family

Shari Kelsch, number 11 on front right row, looked on the tournament in Greece as a "good pre-mission type of experience." The president of the U.S.A. deaf teams called her a "role model player" who said she gave "110 percent on the court, as well as off."

For Shari, example began in her parents' home. She is the third of six children of Glen and Sherrie Kelsch. Her hearing loss — she has just 20 percent — was discovered early; she received her first hearing aid at 11 months, which increased her hearing to between 65 and 70 percent. Older brother, Matthew, 29, is "hard of hearing." The other children, Amie, 26; Cameron, 23; Cody, 20 and serving in the Philippines Tacloban Mission; and Adam, 11; have normal hearing.

When Shari was 2 1/2 years old, her parents enrolled her in the Utah School for the Deaf Parent/Infant Program. Speaking of those earlier years, Shari's mother said: "A teacher would come into the home and teach us how to teach her. We learned things like when we talked with her we put our hands in front of our mouths so she would imitate the sounds [with the help of hearing aids] and not the movement of our mouths."

Shari added: "If it wasn't for them putting me in speech therapy I wouldn't speak as well. There are people who don't know I'm deaf."

Her hearing impairment has never held her back, Sherrie Kelsch said. There is "stuff she can't make sense of," like movies and stage events because Shari reads lips (and also speaks in American Sign Language), but "it's forced her to be more active. She's read more and she's doing all these physical things."

Shari played varsity basketball and volleyball at American Fork (Utah) High School, then for Utah Valley State College in Orem, Utah, and Westminster College in Salt Lake City, where she was MVP for two years.

To Shari, her impairment has not been a trial, but a challenge — even a blessing. "I've been fortunate not to hear the negative things, the swearing words, anything that is not clean. I've had a clean mind because I have been influenced by the nice things in life."

The young woman hopes to pass on the "nice things in life" on her mission in Portland.

E-mail: julied@desnews.com