Athlete Spotlight

Basketball games at the Wells house in Grovetown aren't for the average player.

Three sisters, Shontale, Nicole and Ebony, dominate their home court, where intense competition is the norm.

"Sometimes me and Nicole can't finish a game because we get mad. It's better if we stop," Shontale said.

The girls love to face off against one another. Whether it's a pickup game at Goodale Park or a varsity game at Harlem High School, where Shontale and Nicole played last year, the competition is always serious business.

"When they play against each other, they talk smack. We had to separate them a couple of times during summer league," said Kim Chambers, Harlem High's girls basketball coach. "I can't remember which one talks the most. I seem to think it's Ebony."

Though their family rivalry can get a bit heated, good things happen when the girls play together.

Shontale, a starter for the Lady Bulldogs last season, saw all her hard work pay off this summer.

After graduating from Harlem last spring, the 5-foot 10-inch forward will play at the college level this fall as a member of the Tennessee Temple Crusaders in Chattanooga.

Her parents, Jerold and Sonya Wells, couldn't have been happier.

"We're very proud of her," Jerold said. "For her, it wasn't an easy road. It took endurance."

Shontale isn't the only member of the family with that attribute. Mom and Dad needed plenty of endurance last basketball season just to get to all their daughters' games.

Shontale, the oldest of the Wells girls, started for Harlem, while her sister Nicole played as a freshman on the team. Ebony, the youngest, was a standout starter for the Grovetown Middle School girls basketball team.

"We try to make as many games as we can," their mother said. "There were many times when we were at two schools in one night."

Shontale will move on to the next level, and Chambers said the younger sisters are right behind her.

"We weren't really sure where Nicole was going to fit in (last year), but by the time we got to the Christmas tournament, she was named to the All-Tournament Team," Chambers said.

As for Ebony, Chambers said the same talent is with her.

"As a seventh-grader, she could have played on our varsity right then. As a rising eighth-grader, she's impressive," he said.

With three girls on three basketball teams this fall, the girls' parents said making all their daughters' games will be impossible. Shontale's college road games will come as close as Franklin Springs, Ga.

"We're going to go to some of the closer ones when she plays on the road," their father said. "We're going to as many as we can get to. It's worth it."