A Second Chance : USC’s Karleen Shields Proves That Hard Work Can Break the Grip of Poverty

In March of 1991, Karleen Shields was down and out in Albuquerque, N.M.

She was also a statistic: One of the estimated 25% of America’s mothers who are unmarried.

She flipped burgers in a fast-food restaurant, mopped the floors and cleaned the restrooms at a bank where she was also a teller, and she was a baby-sitter.

In a good month, her net income was about $800.

It wasn’t enough.

But there was basketball, her courage . . . and a conviction that her will and athletic ability could lift her out of poverty.

Today, Karleen Shields, 25, is a starting guard on the USC women’s basketball team. More important, she has a future.

Shields and her daughters, Ayesha, 7, and Keisha, 6, are on their way.

THE BUS TRIP

It was early in the morning of March 7, 1991. Karleen Shields, her daughters and her boyfriend, Robert Shields, were at the Albuquerque Greyhound station.

Karleen was about to break with her past. She would ride a bus 1,470 miles to her future. She was bound for Vallejo, Calif., where she would live with an older sister.

She and Robert, the father of her daughters, had agreed to part. A $172 one-way Greyhound ticket for three was purchased, and there was a tearful farewell. Shields had her two small girls beside her, and $90 in her purse.

THE BAD YEARS

At one point in Albuquerque, Shields worked at three jobs. Robert, when he could find work, was an oil-field roustabout.

“I started at 6:30 a.m. at a bank near the University of New Mexico,” she said.

“I mopped the floors, cleaned the bathrooms and did cleanup work until the bank opened, when I became a teller.

“I got off that job and went home to baby-sit for other mothers. Then I worked at a Burger King from 11 p.m. to about 5 a.m., flipping burgers.

“If I couldn’t get anyone to watch the girls, I’d have to bring them with me.

“I’d put them in the back of the kitchen. They’d stay on a little towel, with their pillow, and either sleep or play with their toys.

“I’d sleep whenever I could--an hour here, a couple of hours there. Finally, the Burger King owner found the kids one morning and fired me. He said it was unsafe for them, and he was right.

“Shoot, I didn’t want them there, either. It was dangerous.

“I was extremely depressed during this period. I called my sister, Beverly, in Vallejo. She’d been after me to move in with her.

“So I told Robert that I wanted to leave, to start a new life. And he agreed.”

CRISIS IN SAN DIEGO

The bus rolled on, to the first stops at Grants and Gallup, N.M. Then it was Holbrook, Winslow, Flagstaff, Phoenix and Yuma, Ariz.

“I had $90 for food to get us through the 2 1/2 days,” she recalled. “Most of the time, the girls slept.”

Crossing the Colorado River, the bus stopped at Calexico, then it was on to Alpine and San Diego.

“The bus had a long stop in San Diego, so we got off and walked around,” she recalled.

“But when we started to get back on, the driver wouldn’t let us on. It turned out my ticket hadn’t been done right in Albuquerque. I needed another $72 for a transfer ticket out of San Diego.

“I was $4 short. So they let me pay $62 and the driver let me on. So we had $4 to eat on from San Diego to Vallejo.”

Another long stop at Los Angeles, then on again. Bakersfield, Visalia, Fresno, Merced, Modesto, Manteca, Tracy, Livermore . . .

Shields, Ayesha and Keisha ate candy, soda and crackers. The girls fussed, cried, played and laughed. But mostly they slept.

Oakland, Mountain View, Walnut Creek . . . and there, finally, was Beverly, at the Vallejo station.

BACK IN THE GYM

That summer, Shields enrolled in classes at Contra Costa College, a junior college in San Pablo. She learned of a women’s basketball class and dropped by one day.

Once, Shields had been the most highly sought female high school athlete in Texas. At Snyder, as Karleen Thompson, she was all-state in basketball, track and volleyball.

Then she had her two girls.

When she learned she was pregnant the first time, she was being widely recruited.

“When I became pregnant,” she said, “it was like, one day everyone was telling me how great I was. Then the next day it was: ‘Oh, what a shame about poor Karleen, she’ll never amount to anything.’

“To tell you the truth, at the time I was almost relieved. The recruiting was terribly stressful for me. I couldn’t make a decision. I had friends on athletic scholarships, and they told me it was like a job.

“That made me more stressed out. I wondered if I was burned out on sports. Part of me wanted to be a regular student. But I knew if I had no athletic scholarship, my family just couldn’t afford it.”

Paul DeBolt, the Contra Costa women’s basketball coach, had heard about Karleen Shields.

“I’d heard there was a good player from Texas in school, that she wanted to play,” he said.

“But coaches hear that all the time. And they’re never as good as you’re led to believe. Karleen came in one day, and I had a full-court game going.

“She went in the game, and got a rebound immediately.

“Sometimes you just know, at the instant a player touches the ball, that she’s a great player. That’s how it was that day.

“She got the rebound, went the length of the court, raced by everyone, and laid it in.

“I thought, ‘Wow. This is the best player in the state.’ ”

Shields averaged 41.8 points last season at Contra Costa, her sophomore year--the highest scoring average in college basketball, men or women, at any level.

At 5 feet 7, she averaged 19.5 rebounds. She scored more than 50 points seven times.

She was at her best in a game against Sierra College last spring for the conference championship.

“She had 59 points and 30 rebounds,” DeBolt said. “But near the end of regulation, we were down four points and we had the ball out of bounds with 13 seconds left.

“Karleen made a three-pointer, but they scored again. With 3.2 seconds left, she made a half-court shot. All net. That tied it and she made eight of our 10 points in overtime and we won by six.”

The recruiting process that Shields had found so stressful in Snyder began again. This time, she was ready.

“I let it be known I wanted to stay in California,” she said.

Shields was signed by USC Coach Marianne Stanley, who then left after a contract dispute. Stanley was replaced by former Trojan star Cheryl Miller.

“I’d always liked SC, and my daughters were never a problem for SC,” Shields said. “Other schools, it was like the girls were a problem.”

Sometimes, though, Shields feels as if she’s back in Albuquerque, working at three jobs.

Ayesha and Keisha attend a USC magnet school, across the street from campus. Shields, her daughters and a Vallejo friend, Sandra Turner, live in a small apartment three blocks from USC.

At USC home games, her daughters are the ball girls, seated under one basket. They don’t stay seated for long. At one recent game:

--Ayesha, during warmups, discovered the PA mike was on. “Hi, Mommy! . . . Three-pointer by Lisaaaa Leslie!”

--Later, Keisha tried to strike up a conversation with Ann Meyers, who at the time was broadcasting the game.

--An hour before the game, the two engaged Washington stars Tara Davis and Katia Foucade in a brief two-on-two game.

At USC practices, they are everywhere--shooting baskets, dribbling about, watching their mom or standing on their heads.

Troubled in the early season by a sore knee, Shields has nonetheless earned a starting assignment at off-guard and is averaging 5.4 points for the eighth-ranked Trojans, who are 14-1.

She hopes to use that speed on USC’s women’s track team this spring, too. She was the state junior college triple jump champion last year.

That’s assuming her daughters haven’t worn her out by then.

“I get up at 6:30 and get them fed and dressed,” she said.

“After school, they come to practice a little after 3, and I take them home on my bike after practice. They go to bed at 9, and I clean the apartment and study after that. Most nights, it’s 2:30 or 3 before I get to sleep.”

To Miller, Karleen Shields belongs on a recruiting poster.

“She’s my Green Beret,” she said. “She can be a great player because she’s tough. She never complains, never winces, even when she’s in pain.

“She walked in here one day, limping. When I asked her what was wrong, she said, ‘Oh, my knee locks up once in a while. It’s OK.’

“Then the trainer, a few days later, told me her knee needed rest, so we had to force her to take it easy. The toughness is just her--it’s a result of all she’s been through.

“We haven’t seen her at her best yet. Her knee has held her back--she needs more minutes.

“To me, my USC teammate, Cynthia Cooper, is the best off-guard USC has ever had. Karleen has the ability to be head and shoulders above Cynthia.”

A NEW WORLD

“I’d like to one day get into the child day-care center business,” Shields said. “I know I could do that well, setting up places where single moms can trust the people to take care of their children.

“That’s the key--people you can trust.

“But I’d like to work in the juvenile system too, counseling unwed young mothers. Maybe I could do it for L.A. County.

“And even unwed fathers. I got a letter from some guy in the Bay Area (who had seen a CNN feature on Shields), who said he was once a high school football star, then got his girlfriend pregnant and went to work.

“After a few years, he said, she left. Now he’s 27, raising his son. So it works both ways.”

And what of pro basketball, which would probably mean Europe, since there is no U.S. pro league for women?

“I’d like to try that, too. But the kids come first. If they fit in, great. Things have to be right for them, too, not just me.”