Good Sports: Ken Shipley inducted into Clovis Athletic Hall of Fame

CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) — It’s hard to find a coach more consistent than Ken Shipley.

I’ve gotten cloudy of eyes a few times,” he said. “It’s very, very special.”

The former longtime Clovis West Girls golf coach recently cemented his legacy.

This November, he was inducted into the Clovis Athletic Hall of Fame.

“When I got a call about it in May or June, I was tremendously surprised,” he said.

For nearly 30 years, Shipley worked as a professor and senior administrator at Fresno State.

Approaching retirement, a second career came calling.

“I got several calls saying, ‘Hey, you’d be a perfect coach for Clovis West.’ and i talked to a few people and thought that might be interesting,” he said.

Shipley raised a golfer himself – his daughter, Jennifer, who starred at Clovis High and Fresno State.

Shipley felt right at home.

“What I think I offered is some knowledge of the game, some consistency and really caring for the kids and what we’re doing,” he said.

“He gave everything he had and years of knowledge and experience,” says current coach Jason Simonetti. “If you were part of his program, you were going to have to put that work in and he did it himself.”

Every January, Shipley would have the girls lay out their goals – giving him the map to structure a game plan.

“They bought into it and when they did, boy, there’s no limits to how successful they could be,” he said.

From his first day to his last day on the job, Shipley won more than 90-percent of the tournaments he coached.

“It’s unheard of,” Simonetti said. “That type of streak, it’s tough to see that it will ever be repeated or come close.”

During Shipley’s tenure, 17 girls have gone on to play golf at 15 different universities.

“The consistency and organization I had, along with the girls and the parents that we had, is really what led to success,” he said.

After decades of teaching on and off the course, Shipley can finally call himself a hall of fame.

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