From the time she was born, Kimber Shambley has been raised to be an athlete.
And to play in the mountains.
Her father, Kevin, was the centerfielder for the Orange baseball team in 1992, which won Dean Dease’s first PAC-6 Conference championship. In the 2nd round of the 4A State Playoffs against Anson County, Kevin trotted down the 3rd base line with his right arm in the air as he scored the game-winning run off a walkoff single by Jonathan Hoffman in the eighth inning of a dramatic 8-7 win. Shambley led off the inning by reaching on a drag bunt. It was the deepest playoff run (aside from another team in 1995) that Orange would ever make at the 4A level under Dease.
Absorbing the intense atmosphere in the stands that late May evening (the Panthers home dugout was on the third base line in those days) was Orange cheerleader Missy Osgood, Kevin’s girlfriend who logged plenty of innings in the bleachers in the early 1990s. In addition to Orange games, she was right there during his junior Babe Ruth games in the summer when the games would stretch on well into the night.
Years later, Kevin and Missy’s daughter has made a name for herself in a related sport on the western end of Hillsborough.
Kimber Shambley, the starting first baseman for the Cedar Ridge softball team, has committed to play at Western Carolina. She is the latest Division I recruit from a program that sent Takia Nichols to North Carolina Central, Tori Dalehite to UNC Greensboro and Rivers Andrews to UNC Wilmington.
“I’ve wanted to go there since I was in seventh grade,” Shambley said. “My first visit there was very nice. It was my number one choice. I love it in Cullowhee. I love the family aspect of this team. They’re very family oriented and very close together. Their players are very welcoming and so is their coaching staff.”
Shambley has gone to camps in Cullowhee since she was in eighth grade and makes Haywood’s Smokehouse restaurant in Dillsboro appointment dining on each visit.
In 2024, Shambley led Cedar Ridge in four offensive categories, including eight home runs and 34 RBIs. She delivered her biggest blast in the most dramatic moment of the season for the Red Wolves against defending 3A Eastern Regional champion Western Alamance in Hillsborough in April. After the Warriors erased a 6-0 deficit with six runs in the top of the seventh, Shambley hit the first walk-off home run of her career to deliver a victory on Senior night.
Against Orange on April 4, Shambley blasted a solo home run off Caden Robinson that sailed over the centerfield fence down to the Panthers’ football/lacrosse practice field.
Kimber started her career playing tee ball in the Hillsborough Youth Athletic Association, one of only two girls in the entire league playing against boys. A year later, she started travel baseball with the Hillsbrough Hawks, then switched to softball with the Royals out of Burlington.
Barry Lowry, a longtime Cedar Ridge assistant coach whose daughters Ava and Charlotte played with the Red Wolves and advanced to the college level, started a softball team in Burlington. Shambley joined the Carolina Extreme in its first year and remained with them under its rebranded moniker of Starz Gold. Her current team is the Nationals under head coach Greg Kennedy.
“He (Kennedy) has been a huge help in the recruiting process.” Shambley said.
Since she was 12, Shambley has taken hitting lessons at Southern Baseball Academy with Robert Hege, an assistant with the Cedar Ridge baseball team.
Her coach at Cedar Ridge, Allen Byrd, was front and center in helping Shambley develop, as well.
“He helped me get a lot of extra reps,” Shambley said. “He helped me become the player I am today.”
Last season, Shambley helped Cedar Ridge reach the state playoffs for the third straight year. In her sophomore season, she hit .346 with 16 RBIs.
“I try to keep myself humble,” Shambley said. “I try to work to get to a better position. I’ve always worked to be a better player but I never thought in my head that I was a college player. I worked to get to that level.”