Everything in Shelley Clark’s life was going great as if she was living a dream.
The star Pointer athlete had lettered in three sports at Point Loma High and been a member of the first of four legendary girls’ basketball teams that won consecutive state championships from 1984 to 1987.
“I was good at basketball, very good at volleyball, and great at softball,” Clark says. “I pitched and played third base.”
She returned home from her freshman year at Northern Arizona University in the summer of 1985 where she had accepted a full-ride scholarship as a softball player.
“We found out some of our friends had returned to campus and decided to drive to Flagstaff and surprise them,” the Point Loma resident said during last week’s 40th-anniversary reunion of her PLHS basketball teammates.
Hours later, her life changed forever.
“I bought beer with my fake ID,” she recalled, “Thinking nothing could happen to me, I’m 18, invincible, and a great athlete. So a bunch of us headed back to Arizona.”
Somewhere near Ocotillo Wells on Interstate 8, the driver lost control of the car.
“I was in the front seat of an ’85 (Chevrolet) Camaro,” Clark said, “with the seat reclined. The car went off the road and rolled over three times end-to-end and I was ejected out the back window. I flew out like a bullet, which was my nickname in high school because I threw so fast.”
The car’s driver was briefly pinned in her seat by the steering wheel but managed to free herself and get help.
Clark was taken to a hospital in El Centro but it was deemed she required a trauma center so a Life Flight helicopter was called. At UCSD’s trauma center, Clark was taken immediately into surgery to repair a list of injuries that included a broken nose, her jaw broken in seven places, her arm, left collarbone, and both wrists broken, seven ribs broken, a lacerated liver and spleen, a collapsed lung and a traumatic brain injury.
When her parents arrived at UCSD they did not recognize their daughter who was in a coma for a month. But they returned twice a day for a year before Clark was released.
She is making the most of her experience by being active in MADD (Mother Against Drunk Driving). In addition, Clark speaks regularly at the San Diego Police Department and the South Bay Superior Court as part of their Alcohol Awareness programs.
Cherishing her life, Clark enthusiastically speaks out about the dangers that exist when alcohol and driving are mixed.
