Jaylen Brown, who led Wheeler to a Georgia high school boys state basketball championship, headlines the 2025-26 Wheeler Athletic Hall of Fame inductees.
Also honored in late January were former basketball player Sharaud Curry, baseball player Joey Monahan, football-baseball-track athlete Hal Shaw, and the 1977 and 1978 softball teams. A formal induction ceremony was postponed due to inclement weather and will be rescheduled at a date to be announced.
Brown played four years of varsity basketball for the Wildcats and as a senior was named Georgia Mr. Basketball. He played at the University of California-Berkeley for one season and was the third player chosen in the 2016 NBA draft. In 2024, he was named the MVP of the NBA Finals as the Boston Celtics won their 18th championship, and he has been an All-Star four times.
Curry was part of two Wheeler boys basketball state championship teams, in 2003 and 2005, and he later starred at Providence College. He played professional basketball in Europe for 13 seasons and has been a coach and owner of a basketball training academy.
Monahan was a standout on the baseball diamond for Wheeler in the late 1990s, earning first-team All-Cobb County, as well as being named MVP of the East Cobb Yankees and selected to the All-Tournament Team at the Connie Mack World Series.
He starred at Liberty University and was drafted by the Chicago Cubs, and played minor league baseball for several seasons before running an insurance business.
Shaw was a lineman for the Wheeler football team under coach Corky Kell, and named a permanent co-captain in the 1973 season, when the Wildcats went undefeated before falling to Thomasville in the state championship game.
He was named All-County and All-State by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and he joins his brother Bill (Class of 1968) in the Wheeler Hall of Fame.
The Wheeler girls softball team played a slow-pitch version of the sport in the late 1970s under coach Jim Mau, who previously led the Wildcats to a baseball state title. His softball teams in 1977 and 1978 won Cobb County titles and finished with respective records of 19-2 and 17-3.
For more information and photos about the inductees, visit the Wheeler Athletic Hall of Fame Facebook page.
Related:
- East Cobb high school athletes make college commitments
- Wheeler hires football coach who won Fla. state title
- Pope youth football coach and booster battling dementia
- Walton Hall of Fame class includes former Little League star
- East Cobb football stars earn Touchdown Club all-state honors
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