Life is pretty hard when everything around you is falling apart. Shauntay was attending Ace High School, it was freshman year of 1975. She was beautiful, she was 5’2 with caramel colored skin and green eyes. She loved to play sports, she was the best basketball player in all of Arizona High Schools. As intelligent as she was she was very stubborn. School was pretty bad since she didn’t know anyone and she did not like to make friends with just anyone, she observed everyone’s every move and saw who could possibly be friend worthy.
Shauntay lived with both of her parent. She has just moved to Arizona coming from a small town she never really spent time in the big city. Now it was her time to show everyone what she was made of. She moved onto Elmers Ave. On the car ride to Chicago she noticed the bad environment condition and she saw plenty of gang memorabilia. Nate was her new neighbor, he was 6’0-6’1 with blue eyes and with hair down to his shoulders. Nate played Football, Lacrosse, and Basketball. There was suddenly a relief that was lifted off her shoulders when she laid her eyes on him. They hung out everyday, they would even go to the park to play basketball on weekends.
Shauntay and Nate both went to Ace High School and when she first saw him she did not question herself on making friends with him. Nate thought she was pretty cool and instantly fell for her.
2 ½  Years passed later, Nate and Shauntay were so close and there was definitely a spark between them. Their bond was unbreakable, they could laugh for days from really hilarious jokes to just plain bad jokes that made no sense. People all around school thought they’d been dating which drew the attention of grown adults who were racists. Shauntay and Nate were falling apart because of rumors that they had been dating. Nate’s mom had a problem with her son being friends with a person of different color. Nate’s mom forbid him from seeing her and since he was her only friend she came to a point where she grew with depression and her life seemed to be impossible to change. A couple days later, her dad was murdered in the subway by a cold blooded killer during a robbery. Shauntay’s mom hit rock bottom and lost her job the next day. They went broke and lost their home, had nothing to eat. When Shauntay and her mom were homeless and there was nowhere to live, no car, or family around to help. Never in her life had she thought 1977 would be the absolute worst year of her life. Her depression worsened and she became very ill. She dropped out of school and quit playing basketball.
Since Shauntay and her mother were homeless they started living in a shelter. While living in the shelter Shauntay befriended an older gentleman named Henry. They would laugh together, play cards together, and he would help her forget what was going on. One day Henry asked Shauntay if she had ever heard of ping pong. Being a former athlete, Henry knew it would be something that would interest Shauntay. He taught her the rules and she seemed very interested. The following day they actually got to play. They played for hours. Ping Pong was a way for Shauntay to get away from the craziness that was going on in her life.
Months later Henry entered Shauntay into a Ping Pong Tournament at a local university. The grand prize was $50,000. Shauntay was nervous but knew that if Henry was there she would be okay. Competitors came and went and she continued to move up the bracket. She gained momentum as the tournament went on. It wasn’t until the championship match that she actually lost a set. However that didn’t stop her from winning it all. Never in her life did she think that Ping Pong would save her life but it did.