The "Cobra Spotlight" is a weekly highlight of a student-athlete at Coker College. Each week we take a different athlete from a different sport and display some facets to get more familiar with them. This week we take a look at Shauntel Smullen, member of the women's cross country team.
Name: Shauntel Smullen
Sport: Women’s cross country
Hometown: Columbia, S.C.
Year: Freshman
Major: Business administration with a concentration in sport management
Why did you choose Coker? I wanted to go to a small school, but I also chose to attend Coker because I was interested in its new track program.
What is your best memory at Coker (athletic related)? My best memory at Coker was running at the Francis Marion invitational. I won second place overall; ran a personal record of 18:55; and I broke the Coker women’s cross country record, which was one of my main goals for this season.
What is your best memory at Coker (non-athletic related)? My best memory at Coker was the last day of CC 101. Because it was the last day, we went to Sonic to get ice cream and played volleyball.
Which athletic team would you play on at Coker other than your own? Unfortunately, I can’t dribble, shoot a basketball, or do any sport that involves coordination so I’m stuck being a runner for the rest of my life. But if I had to choose a sport other than cross country, I would choose soccer, just because that always seemed like a cool sport to me. Soccer involves a lot of running, which is the one thing that I’m good at.
Favorite class: Introduction to Business (BA 101)
Favorite professor: Glenn Chappell
Plans after graduation: After graduating college I plan on getting a job as a physical therapist.
Favorite movie: White Chicks
Favorite type of music: R&B
Favorite food: Hot wings and cheese burgers. It’s actually really sad that I can literally eat these two foods every day for the rest of my life and be completely satisfied.
Favorite sports team: I have never been interested in watching any type of sport. In my opinion, sports are only interesting if you’re the one playing them. So, I am going to cheat and say that Spring Valley (my old high school) is my favorite sports team.
Favorite color: Mint Blue
Favorite TV show: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Most prized possession: A necklace that my mom gave me that I bring to all of my meets now for good luck.
What is something people may not know about you? I have eight siblings (five brothers and three sisters); and I’m the fourth oldest out of the nine kids.
Do you have a nickname? If so, how did you get it? Everyone in my family calls me Tels, which is just short for Shauntel.
One word that describes you: Crazy