There was no pretense in Sherrice King’s game when she played basketball for the University of Colorado.
She knew her role and played it well. King’s forte was playing defense, rebounding and scoring second-chance points.
“Picking up the trash points, that’s me,” King said last week from her office at Texas A&M, where she helps provisionally admitted students gain full admission. “I wish I could say I scored 20 points a game, but I knew my job was to play defense and rebound, and I made a good career of it.”
King was a key cog on two of coach Ceal Barry’s best teams. The 1991-92 Buffs won the Big Eight Conference Tournament. The next season, the Buffs won the conference championship and advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, beating perennial power Stanford en route.
“The 1993 team had great chemistry,” Barry said. “I’m not sure it was our most talented team, but it played together. Sherrice was our leader at the defensive end.”
In those two years, CU was a combined 49-13. The 1992-93 team finished No. 10 nationally.
King usually drew the assignment of guarding the other team’s best player. She played four seasons at CU and started 52 games. In the 1991-92 season, she averaged 9.4 rebounds a game.
King was an all-around sports star at Rampart High School in Colorado Springs, where she participated in basketball, volleyball and track and field (high jump, triple jump and relays).
“I was always tall and a little bit of a klutz when I started high school,” King said. “As my coordination got better, basketball became my best sport. I was 6-feet-2 when I played in college.”
Barry provided a major influence in helping King’s game.
“I loved playing for Coach Barry,” King said. “She’s the toughest coach I ever had. She had us convinced we were the worst team in the world, and that made us work extra hard.”
King’s efforts at Rampart and CU have not gone unnoticed. On Oct. 27, she is scheduled to be inducted into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame.
After her playing days at CU, King briefly considered playing professional basketball. After deciding she didn’t have the passion to pursue a pro career, she tried coaching, working as an assistant at Colorado College for a year.
“It was useful experience,” King said. “I liked being a coach, but I didn’t love coaching.”
King went back to CU after her year at CC, and from 1994 to 2001, she took on the duties of academic coordinator for student-athletes. In 2001, she moved to Texas A&M in a similar role in the athletic department. She has since moved into an adviser’s role for the general student population.
“There are some big similarities to coaching,” King said. “I loved my college years, and I like doing what I can to help others have the same experience.”
King still is a player, albeit at the recreational league level.
“I never was discouraged from playing sports but never forced,” King said. “It always was my choice. I had access to playing a lot of different sports and some God-given talent. I do remember playing with dolls and all that but not as much as playing football and basketball.”
Does she consider herself a tomboy?
“Oh, my goodness, yes,” she said.
King bio
Born: May 27, 1970, in Bardstown, Ky.
High school: Rampart in Colorado Springs
College: University of Colorado
Family: Mother Eva; father Robert; sisters Danielle, Debra; brother Lee
Hobbies: Putzing around in the yard, reading
Horizons: Any excuse to use her passport
