Like her father before her, West Hartford’s Sheri Shea is an outstanding athlete who excels in tennis and paddle tennis. A trailblazer with a diverse resume of activities, she has consistently ranked in the top five players in New England for various age groups in singles and doubles, achieved three national 40+ paddle tennis titles, and ranked #3 in women’s open paddle tennis.
Sheri earned a full scholarship to the University of North Texas for its Division I sports program, from which she graduated magna cum laude. She began her career in 1984 as the head men’s and women’s tennis coach at the University of Hartford, the first woman to coach both Division I tennis teams simultaneously.
As deputy director for an organization called New York Junior Tennis & Learning, she trained more than 200 trainers using a curriculum of her own design. In all, she and her colleagues created an afterschool, tennis-centered safe haven for 20,000 children in New York City. Two other beneficiaries of her tireless work on the court are the Fern Park Tennis Association, which she founded and directed, and Camp KO, a comprehensive six-week summer program on the campus of Kingswood Oxford School in West Hartford, which has been acclaimed as one of the best camps of its kind. Sheri also worked as the head tennis professional at the Hartford Golf Club and Tumblebrook Country Club.