The Shelly Pennefather Cup
Who is Shelly Pennefather?
Shelly Pennefather is the most renowned athlete in Machebeuf history who left everything behind to become a nun. From 1980-1982 she led Machebeuf to 3 consecutive basketball championships, never losing a game in her 4 years of high school basketball. She finished her career 96-0. She was recently ranked as the best Colorado Girls Basketball player of all-time by long-time Colorado prep sports writer Neil Devlin.
After high school she played basketball at Villanova where she was the NCAA Big East player of the year three consecutive years and in 1987 she won the Wade Trophy as the nation's best college senior. Following college, she played professional basketball in Japan for 4 years. She was offered a $200,000 contract to return for a 5th year, but she heard the Lord's call to enter the religious life.
One June 8, 1991, she entered the Poor Clares in Alexandria, Virginia. The Poor Clares are a cloistered religious community. They live in almost total silence and have renounced almost all possessions. They are cut off from the rest of the world and she is able to see her family twice a year and only from behind a screen.
"Don't feel sorry for me. Don't feel like I have this horrible quiet little life where I don't get to see anybody, because this is the greatest life! This is an extraordinary life!"
(Shelly Pennefather in conversation with her family)
She is now Sister Rose Marie of the Queen of the Angels.
