Shemkia Reid is one of those once-in-a-lifetime kind of athletes, and she put up the numbers to show it from an early age in Wilson through her playing days at Barton College.
Reid starred in track, volleyball, and basketball at Fike High School in Wilson before becoming one of the most successful student-athletes in the history of Barton’s athletic program. The 6-footer played both basketball and volleyball for the Bulldogs under head coach Wendee Saintsing.
In basketball, the daughter of Jerry and Barbara Reid scored 1,747 career points and had 1,039 career rebounds, was a three-time Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference Player of the Year, and a three-time All-East Region selection. She is the most decorated women’s basketball player in school history. In volleyball, Reid was twice chosen as first team all-conference, was named as the CVAC Female Athlete of Year in 2001, and is the only person to be awarded the Barton College Kiwanis Female Athlete of Year Award three times.
All those accomplishments, plus a successful career in social work for the past decade, made Reid an easy first-ballot choice for induction into the Barton College Athletic Hall of Fame.
“I’m excited,” Reid said of joining the Barton Hall of Fame. “My dad told me a long time ago that one day they were going to put me in the Hall of Fame, so it came to pass.”
Reid was always taller than her classmates, but she said it wasn’t until her senior year at Fike that she realized she must be pretty good in basketball “because I was getting calls from different colleges, and the University of Nebraska sent an assistant coach to my house.”
She was also courted by South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Florida A&M, and Reid received letters from schools all over the country. So why did she choose Barton?
“It was definitely the full scholarship,” she recalled, “because I knew my parents couldn’t afford to send me to school. I didn’t hesitate in saying yes to Barton. It was a way for me to have the opportunity to get a degree. To do it on an athletic scholarship was just the icing on the cake.”
“Shemkia was an exceptional athlete,” Saintsing said. “She had good speed and agility for her size. In volleyball, she was just a very well-rounded athlete; you could put her in the front row or the back row. She never came out of the game and was good defensively for her height.”
Reid said she had to quickly adapt to playing volleyball at a higher level since most of her Lady Bulldog teammates were playing in summer volleyball leagues while she was playing basketball.
“For the most part, I played middle hitter,” she said, “and my forte was blocking, but by the time I was a junior and senior, I was also playing on the back line because I was so competitive that I didn’t want to sit out. I just really enjoyed the sport, and being on the team, especially after I became a better defender. It also got me in good shape for basketball.”
She has fond memories of visiting Six Flags Over Georgia on a holiday trip and “finally making it to the conference finals, which was a big deal. We played Lees-McRae and competed well, but didn’t win. I also remember Coach (Saintsing) telling me how impressed she was with how I grew in the sport.”
As for her basketball career at Barton, Reid said, “It was everything I thought it would be. I was looking back at an article recently from signing day in high school, and I said in there that I was hoping to make history at Barton. I guess I did. I can’t remember a game when I came off the floor that I didn’t feel I had given 100 percent. I have just always loved basketball.”
Even in the summers, Reid kept honing her skills by hitting the weight room and playing in pickup games at the Wilson Recreation Center or Reid Street. She sometimes took her teammates with her to Reid Street on Sunday afternoons.
Although she was taller than most, Reid really got pumped up to play against taller foes and remembers that her teammates “had a level of expectation for me to perform well. A lot of my rivals from high school went on to play at DI schools, so that just made me work harder so I could get in there and score in the paint.”
As for garnering player-of-the-year honors three times from the league coaches, she said, “I guess they had respect for me and how I played. I just played hard and clean, and didn’t do any trash talking.”
“Shemkia was a very good all-around basketball player,” Saintsing said. “Her overall skills, agility, foot speed, and jumping ability helped her be really successful. We haven’t had many kids come through here to be as successful as she was in two sports.”
Saintsing also said Reid was a top-notch student and team leader. “She was the kind of kid every coach wants on their team,” Saintsing said. “She was a good role model … and continues to be.”
Reid graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work degree and moved to Atlanta, where she began her career as a foster care case manager in the Fulton County Department of Family and Children Services. She has had several titles in the last 10 years and is currently the State of Georgia’s Office of Provider Management Monitor for the Department of Human Services.
Reid, who has received numerous awards for her work with foster care children, earned her Master of Social Work degree from Clark Atlanta University in 2009 on a full-ride Title IV-E grant.
Reid was engaged to Mark Harris this past July and has planned a July 2013 wedding.
She started getting active in team sports through the Wilson Parks and Recreation Department at age 10. She played basketball, volleyball, and softball at Toisnot Middle School, with the basketball team posting an undefeated record her 7th-grade season.
As she kept growing, so did her prowess. She became a dominant force in track, basketball, and volleyball at Fike, leading the Golden Demons to conference basketball championships her junior and senior seasons. As a senior, she was the Harvey Reid MVP of the Eastern Carolina Christmas Classic and was MVP of the Eastern Regional. She played in the State Games of North Carolina twice and was selected to play in the N.C. High School Athletic Association’s East-West All-Star Game in Greensboro, N.C. Reid, who played for Atlantic Christian College alumnus and Barton College Hall of Famer Eddie Summerlin at Fike, also starred for an AAU team out of Kinston that advanced to the AAU National Championship Tournament her junior and senior seasons.
In volleyball, she was an all-conference pick and team MVP for the Demons. She dominated at the net and was also a tough back-line defender.
On the track, she excelled in individual sprints, the relays, and the long jump. She was a big part of 4×200 and 4×100 relay teams that set school and state records.
At Barton, Reid’s legacy continued to grow as a two-sport standout. The volleyball teams went 74-39 (.655) during her four years. The Bulldogs’ best record was 18-9 her junior year, when they finished second in league play. She was first-team all-conference her junior and senior seasons, when she led the nation in blocks each year at 1.99 and 1.98 per game, respectively. She was also co-team MVP both of those years.
Reid was a silky smooth pivot player in basketball who posted some great numbers, and her efforts were rewarded with a spot on the All-Time All-CVAC Women’s Basketball Team (1995-2007) alongside former Lady Bulldogs Keauna Vinson, Tanisha Adams, and Kelly Lamotta. Reid, who was a first team All-Region pick her sophomore season when she earned Daktronics Honorable Mention All-America honors, averaged 16.2 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 1.27 blocks in 109 games and is the ninth-leading scorer in school history. She also notched 170 steals and 137 blocks while posting 50 career double-doubles (scoring-rebounding) and shooting 51 percent from the floor. She is still the career-leader in free throws made and attempted at 429-623 (68 percent). Barton posted a 58-51 record during her four seasons on the hardwood.
Reid is excited to be joining the Hall of Fame on the same night as fellow Wilsonians Randy Pridgen (Class of 1983) and Stacey Radford Miller (2002). She and Miller played recreation soccer on the same team and later played volleyball together at Toisnot. They have been friends ever since.
“Barton is its own community,” Reid said. “I didn’t expect that. I don’t regret one minute choosing to go to school at Barton. It was the best decision for me, and it was definitely worth it!”
She intended to major in nursing, but quickly switched to social work.
“I knew I wanted to be in the helping profession,” Reid said. “The best things about my job now are that it is never boring, you get to see families succeed, and you get to help strengthen and keep families together. That’s rewarding.”
Reid gave it her all on the court, and she was rewarded with numerous awards. Now, she is helping others make a move to the top. Once a winner, always a winner. A role model in college, she has continued to set the stage for others to achieve their dreams as well. That’s what Hall of Famers do.
