- April 23, 2024
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Every time he set foot on a basketball court for Flagler Palm Coast, the sickening feeling returned.
Corey Shakes loved the game. His mother, Brenda Shakes, said that when her son first started playing basketball in ninth grade, he was rarely seen without a ball in his hand.
High school ball was supposed to be fun, Corey Shakes thought. It was supposed to be the time where he grew as a player, and it was supposed to be the stepping stone toward realizing his dream of playing for a college team.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Corey Shakes, who was on FPC’s varsity team his sophomore and junior years, saw the court sparingly for the Bulldogs. On a good night, he’d play a full quarter. Usually, however, his nights ended with about two to three minutes of playing time due to the players ahead of him on the depth chart.
He felt loved by his teammates but not valued by his coaches. He felt every misstep was scrutinized. He was terrified of making mistakes. Every moment on the court, he was preoccupied, worried that his chance to prove himself would be taken away at any moment.
His confidence was nonexistent.
“It’s like a handicap,” Corey Shakes said. “You’re shaking and you’re nervous and you have all these butterflies in your system. You don’t want to mess up. Toward the end of my junior year, I just couldn’t stay there anymore. I had to get out.”
Although he transferred to crosstown rival Matanzas, both he and FPC coach Gary McDaniel insist there's no ill-will. McDaniel, who said he prefers a more assertive style of coaching, remembers Corey Shakes as a "hard working kid."
"He's a great kid, and he comes from a great family," McDaniel said. "I wish him the best at Matanzas."
And nearly halfway through the season, he’s proven to be a valuable asset for the Pirates. He cracked the starting lineup for the first time in his playing career and was named one of the team’s captains in the first game of the season.
The decision to anoint Corey Shakes as a team captain was an easy one for Pirates coach Donald Lockhart.
“It was his leadership,” Lockhart said. “He came in and took over. He stepped in like he’s been here before. He’s been a valuable piece to our puzzle.”
At his first practice with the Pirates, Corey Shakes felt the pressure of needing to perform, of needing to show his new coaches and teammates exactly what he could do. The nervousness and stress returned.
But his coaches quickly eased his mind.
“In basketball, you’re going to make mistakes,” Lockhart remembered telling him. “When he realized he could make a mistake and not get yelled at, that was the deciding piece for him. Mistakes are going to happen. Don’t get upset about making one mistake. Just know what you did wrong, try to correct it and move on.”
It was a breath of fresh air for the senior.
“My mindset at FPC was that if I do something wrong, I’m going to get taken out, and I would never know when I’d get back in,” Corey Shakes said. “Here, I can just play basketball.”
He planned to transfer from FPC after his sophomore year but couldn’t due to transportation issues. But watching their son’s confidence deplete another year was the deciding factor for Brenda and Patrick Shakes.
Corey Shakes shared a car with his parents until they could buy him a car of his own: a 2003 Chevrolet Malibu.
“One of my biggest regrets was not letting him transfer after his sophomore year because the difference between Corey then and now is amazing,” Brenda Shakes said. “I can just see the growth in him.”
Since his transfer to Matanzas, Corey Shakes has drawn interest from a Division III and NAIA program. In addition to working toward a college scholarship, his goal for the rest of this season is to help his team to a district title. But regardless of whether he accomplishes those tasks, he's grateful for the opportunity he got with the Pirates — an opportunity that seemed impossible only a year ago.
“The people who doubted me: I want to prove them wrong,” Corey Shakes said. “And the people who believed in me: I just want to do them right. My parents, my coaches. I just want to leave high school knowing that I did everything I could in the short amount of time that I played basketball.”
