“Don’t give up on your dream. No matter how old you get or what the situation is, like if you feel you don’t have any support or something, if you really have a dream and it’s what you want to do then shoot for the stars. Nobody can stop you,” advised Shonte Hailes. “Don’t let anyone come from the outside telling you that you’re crazy for going for it. Just don’t let anyone stop you from going for your dreams because they will look insane when you complete it.”
Shonte Hailes is living proof of what life can be like when people work hard to achieve their dreams no matter what. Her dream of playing professionally and being the best she can started when she was a child. One of her neighbors inspired her love of the game and taught her how to play.
“When I was about eight, I had a neighbor named Reggie, and he always played basketball. I just started going out there with him and my other neighbor, DJ (Donnie Staten). DJ had the basketball goal, and we would go out every day. Reggie was so much better than both of us and would kill us every day,” Shonte reminisced. “I told Reggie one day that I wanted to learn how to play basketball the right way. He took me to the park almost every other day and we practiced it. I would go to P.E. with Mrs. Hampton, and she told me one day that I could be really good, but I didn’t believe it. I was in third grade, and then I just started practicing by myself and picking up on stuff that the guys did and became really good.”
All those years of practice paid off, and she and her teammates made a great accomplishment by her senior year of high school.
“One of my favorite memories was in 2016 when I got to share the memory with my teammates of winning the state championship for Quitman,” recalled Shonte. “We were the first team to do it, and all of us in that group are still tight. We still have group chats and talk about it to this day.”
After going on to play for four years at Southern Miss, Shonte continued her dream of playing professionally. Despite different things happening, she never gave up. She wasn’t afraid to follow her dreams and make history for Quitman by being the first female to play professionally overseas.
“Covid hit in 2020, and I had a whole year off to wait. My family asked me if I still planned to play basketball overseas, and I did. I had all that time off where I could rehab my knee and get it back how I wanted it,” explained Shonte. “One boy said there is no one from Quitman who has played overseas, but there are actually more than he thought. Just because I’m the first female playing overseas doesn’t mean I’m scared of it. There’s nothing to be scared of.”
Her dream finally became a reality, and she recently went to Germany to play professionally. Living in Germany was a whole new experience for her, though.
“I went for four months and played in Germany, and it was very eye opening,” declared Shonte. “I’m a very picky eater, so went I went over there that had to change really fast. The food over there was just not my cup of tea. A funny fact about me is that I can’t cook, so when I got over there I struggled really bad with food and trying to cook and teach myself. Our team was in Division Two, so we played against some really good teams.”
She was excited to make the trip to Germany even though it was a major change for her.
“When I was leaving to go to Germany, I was so excited for it to be the first time I was leaving America by myself,” stated Shonte. “At the same time, when I got on that 17 hour flight I realized that it was real and I was going to Germany to play basketball by myself. I got a little emotional on the flight, but it went away when we landed in Germany. The temperature dropped drastically, so I had to get out of my feelings and put on a coat.”
It didn’t take long for her to discover that the culture in the area of Germany she was staying was completely different to what she has been accustomed to in the United States.
“Our team was the Lions in Germany. It was a little retirement town, and I remember the first day getting there that my translator told me I could take a $100 bill place that money where it was showing and come back a week later and that it would still be sitting there,” described Shonte. “They have a zero percent crime rate where I was. One day, my teammates and I went to a fruit stand. I asked who I was supposed to pay and my translator pointed to a sign, but I told her I couldn’t read it. She said it was two euros, and I asked who I was supposed to give the money to. She told me I just set the money on the counter and the owners would get it that night when they came to close the stand. No one watched the stand, and they would only come to close it.”
She learned at her first game that some rules are a little different overseas, but she still managed to show how amazing she is on the basketball court as soon as she went out to play.
“On my first game, I didn’t start and came off the bench. When you sub in a game, you have to go to the table and can’t see unless you stand up. You can’t sub in until the referee holds his hand up. The first thing I did was get a technical foul because when I heard the horn go off I instantly just walked in. I thought it was just like America, but it isn’t and you have to wait until the man raises his hand. Then, you and your teammate smack hands, and then you can go in,” informed Shonte. “It was real different, but the moment I subbed in a game, I shot a three pointer. It was pretty crazy. I subbed in and the coach called the play. I didn’t know the plays at the time, so I just went to the open spot. My teammate passed it to me, and I shot it. When we had halftime, I would just sit there during the halftime speech because the coach was speaking German. As we were walking back out, the coach told me not to worry about anything that was said in the speech and just shoot the ball.”
Unfortunately, Covid caused her first season to be cut short.
“It’s normally almost an eight month trip, but when Corona hit, they shut our league down. They gave us the option to stay over there or go home. My other American teammate and I decided there was no point in staying over there, so we flew home,” said Shonte. “We were supposed to be over there longer, but that new variant hit pretty badly and they put us on lockdown. We were being Covid tested like four times a week, and someone is bound to test positive when doing that. It was like every other week we were having someone test positive, and all the roommates had to quarantine for that.”
She is now making plans for her future career in basketball. While she doesn’t know for sure which team she will be playing on, she does have hopes for where she may end up this next season.
“Right now, I’m just working out in training and waiting to leave out again this coming September,” expressed Shonte. “Hopefully, I can get a job in Australia. I would go if another team were to want me, but I’d really like to go to Australia because they do speak English a little bit. Until then, I’m just working out and hanging out with my family soaking the time in.”
She also loves her community and does everything she can to try and encourage others to follow their dreams.
“I was telling some of the high schoolers who have plans to play professionally that all they have to do is work, work, work, and not let anyone outwork them,” proclaimed Shonte. “They shouldn’t let anyone tell them they can’t do something today because they can. If they have the drive and will, then no one can stop them and tell them they can’t do something.”
No matter what, Shonte will continue to live out her dream and inspire everyone she comes in contact with to do the same.
If you would like to nominate someone for Person of the Week, contact Brittney Mangum at 601-776-3726.
