Kent Shelley retired following the 2020 season after 33 seasons as skipper of the Cavaliers baseball program. He ammassed an impressive 1075-603-1 mark, led four teams to Eastern Sub-Regional championships, four squads won NJCAA Region VI titles, three East Jayhawk Conference titles and two NJCAA World Series appearances. 

Highly regarded by his coaching peers and his success at JCCC earned him national recogntion. In 2007 he was inducted into the NJCAA Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, just the second from the Kansas Jayhawk Conference. In January 2013, Shelley earned baseball’s highest honor when he was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Hall of Fame. That same year he joined the JCCC Athletics Hall of Fame, and in December 2015, he was inducted into the Ban Johnson League Hall of Fame.

In his 33 seasons at Johnson County, Shelley produced nine teams that surpassed 40 wins, 20 that surpassed 30 wins and 32 of 33 teams topped 20 or more wins, including the most recent season cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cavaliers were 20-3, stood in first place in the conference and were ranked among the top-10 in the NJCAA.

Shelley’s players also saw unbelievable success. He coached 11 NJCAA All-Americans, two preseason All-Americans, one World Series All-Tournament selection, six USA Junior College All-Stars, 34 All-Region VI performers, 176 All-East Jayhawk Conference selections, two conference MVPs, two conference freshmen of the year, one conference pitcher of the year, one Rawlings Gold Glove recipient and two Rawlings Big Stick award winners. Additionally, 44 of his former players were drafted or signed as free agents by Major League Baseball since he took over as head coach in 1987.

In August of 2002, power hitter Kit Pellow became the first former Johnson County player to make it to the Major League level, playing for the Kansas City Royals. Two years later, Pellow was the opening day starter in left field for the Colorado Rockies.

While developing professional talent is impressive, Shelley also had a significant number of players continue their playing careers at four-year universities and colleges. A total of 316 student-athletes under his direction transferred to play at four-year institutions, and that number is sure to increase with athletes from the 2020 team still actively being recruited.

Off the field, Shelley’s players have been honored by the NJCAA for academic excellence 63 times, and in 2019, pitcher Dylan Bierman became the first JCCC male athlete to earn Google Cloud Academic All-America® College Division At-Large as named by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).