Shelby Wickersham is a 2018 Hot 100 pitcher from Metairie, Louisiana who plays for the Marucci Patriots travel team and attends Mt. Carmel Academy, a private school in New Orleans.

This fall, she helped her volleyball team win its third straight 5A volleyball title but her future is in the circle at LSU where she will start classes in the fall of 2018.

The 5-foot-11 athlete who maintains a 4.6 GPA in all Honors and AP Classes maintains a busy schedule from sunup to sundown. We asked her to chronicle a typical day for us--here's what one was like recently!



I live in Metairie, a small suburb of New Orleans near Lake Pontchatrain. We live in a house in a small subdivision with only nine houses in it. I love living here because it makes me feel safe!

We have five in our family including me: my mom Stacey, my dad Jeff, my 14-year-old brother Kyle, and my little 11-year-old sister Lindsey



As a softball player, every day is truly unique.

I love waking up and seeing what the new day has in store. A typical day consists of me waking up at 5:00 AM. I study for any tests or quizzes I may have and also finish any homework that is due. I am not much of a morning person, so I usually hit the snooze button at least two times before dragging myself out of bed!

Next, I get dressed in my school uniform and head to school. Luckily, I attend an all-girls Catholic school, so we have to wear uniforms and do not need to spend much time getting ready in the morning!

My school is about a 15-minute drive from my house. I usually drive by myself and listen to whatever is on the radio that day. I like listening to country in the morning because it helps to slowly wake me up!

If my mom does not cook breakfast, on the way to school I grab a smoothie from Smoothie King or coffee and breakfast sandwich from Pucchinos. When my mom cooks, it is usually an awesome turkey and cheese omelet with toast which is my favorite breakfast.

I arrive at school around 7:15 am, and go to a quick meeting for Ambassadors. My school is an all-girl school that goes from grades 8-12.

We have approximately 1,200 girls at Mount Carmel, but it seems smaller because I am involved in sports and clubs which give me the opportunity to meet many girls! We are a very close knit school and have many good friends on all grade levels.

This year I was chosen to be one of the few junior Ambassadors to the school. This is a very prestigious honor at our school. An ambassador presents the school tours to prospective students and their parents on open house days and are the face of Mount Carmel Academy while visiting other schools and functions.

After, I socialize with my friends until the bell rings for class to start at 7:50 am. We hang out in the gym and talk about everything under the sun!

Actually, we mostly talk about school and what classes we have that day or what is happening the upcoming weekend. We have a rotating block schedule of seven classes which means we constantly change which classes we have each day.

I have two 75 minute periods, then an Independent Study period where I do most of my homework. My schedule is very challenging because I take all honors and AP courses, but I enjoy most of my classes.

My favorite class to start the day is Psychology AP because it's my favorite subject. I think that I may actually want to be a psychologist one day! However, some other careers that I am looking into are occupational therapy and special education.

To finish the school day, I have lunch and two more 75 minute class periods. Everyone eats on campus at school, but we are allowed to eat in either of our two cafeterias or outside. My group sits at a table inside the big cafeteria next to a couple other junior lunch groups.

When the 3:10 pm bell rings and the school day is over, I head to volleyball practice. I really enjoy playing volleyball for Mount Carmel because it allowed me to compete with the best players in the state, many of which were fortunately on my team!

It's a lot like softball in that the athletes and competition drive me to be my very best everyday but also different in some ways. Volleyball is super-fast paced with a lot of substitutions and rotations. I believe playing volleyball also helped me to develop and use other muscles that softball does not.

However, becoming a more well-rounded athlete has helped me to improve in softball. Having won the 5A State Championships has been the highlight of my high school sports career so far! I am very blessed and humbled to have been part of this championship team.

We are now looking forward to competing and hopefully winning the 5A State Championship in softball this year!

Practice is from 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm and then I stay after for a private lesson on hitting and blocking until 6:30 pm.

Volleyball practice is like softball practice as you must always be working on improving your play while still fitting into the team concept. In volleyball and softball, you are only as good as your teammates and we learn we must all work together to be able to accomplish our goals.

We certainly work hard as individuals but we all know the team comes first! Private lessons in volleyball are similar to softball because you get one-on-one attention and get to work on your personal weaknesses. The only major difference is what I am working on while doing privates because they are two completely different sports.

Straight from volleyball I head over to Big Easy Sportsplex, which is an indoor sport and workout facility, for pitching lessons with my long-time pitching coach, Matt Uhle. I have been working with Coach Matt since I was 10 years old. Pitching with Coach Matt is always something I look forward to in my day!

Coach Matt works with me on all phases of my pitching including technique for all pitches, stamina, location, core strength, drills, etc. He motivates me to be the best I can be every day even if I am tired and sore. He will not accept any excuses for a poor practice and demands mental toughness to work through any thoughts of just getting though a practice instead of getting better and taking advantage of every opportunity to work! I think of Coach Matt as family and really appreciate all he has done for me and my family.

After pitching lessons, I drive home and enjoy dinner with my family. Spending time with them at night is so important to me because I am busy during the day, and I do not get to see them.

We always start dinner with a prayer usually led by my little sister, Lindsey. Then, we talk about our days, how practice went, how school was, etc.

Lastly, after spending time with my family and pets--I have a black lab named Molly and an exotic short haired Persian cat named Opie; I look forward to their greeting every day when I get home!--I take my shower and get ready for bed.

I hop into bed and check my social media before going to sleep. I have Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram, but I use Snapchat and Twitter the most.

On a normal day, I go to bed around 10:30 pm, but that can fluctuate depending on how much homework I have or how late I get home from practice.

And then the next day I get up and do it all over again!

Shelby Wickersham