THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 5, 1994 TAG: 9410050672
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
Shawn Wilson wanted to be the first Bayside High School player to play on a national champion college football team, so when the college recruiters came calling, the highly touted defensive back picked the University of Florida.
Now the Gators are No. 1 in the polls, but Wilson is telling his story from a yellow recliner in his grandmother's home in the Aragona section of Virginia Beach.
``I would rather be on a sorry team and be happy than be back at Florida,'' says the 5-foot-11, 180-pound Beach native, rocking back and forth.
Wilson shows off his Sugar Bowl ring and the rest of what he calls his Gator ``para'': sneakers and a jogging suit, a team photo packed away in its cardboard box and half a dozen watches marked with the Southeastern Conference insignia.
The closest he'll get to a national championship this year is watching one on TV - a freak knee injury and his own unhappiness with the school saw to that - but Wilson isn't bitter.
Instead, he's taking classes at Old Dominion, doing some coaching at Cox High and talking about returning to football, maybe, next year.
I'm a Gator,'' assures Wilson. ``I coach at Cox, but I went to Bayside, so I'm still a Marlin. . . . And now I'm a Monarch, too.''
As he talks, he turns the pages of an overstuffed scrapbook, past the prom photos, the newspaper clippings and the plane-ticket stubs from a handful of recruiting trips he took two years ago. He finds the photo taken of him the day he signed his letter of intent to play at Florida, and stares at the image of an 18-year-old boy adorned in Gator gear.
``I was indecisive then. I told everybody I wanted to go to Florida,'' he says. But he later admits, ``I didn't really know what I wanted to do.''
A first team All-Tidewater selection at defensive back, Wilson was recruited by Virginia, Georgia, Syracuse and Tennessee, to name a
few. At Florida, he figured his chances for being part of a national championship team were pretty good.
``I did some research,'' he says. ``I wanted to win a national championship. I knew I'd come close. By the time I graduated, they were winning.''
But he didn't like Gainesville. ``Too hot,'' he said.
It was his first time being so far from home, and he missed it. He had been especially close to the coaches at Bayside, but at Florida, he was just No. 8. And with the team's mandatory weight program, suddenly playing football wasn't as fun.
``It was more like a job,'' says Wilson, who maintained a 2.8 grade-point average there. ``In high school, the coaches are friendly; they're like your buddies. In college, there's so many other people. The coaches will talk to you, but it's not like high school.''
After sitting out his first year at Florida, Wilson competed with his closest buddy on the team, Anthone Lott, for a starting cornerback position as a redshirt freshman. It was spring ball, and Wilson says, ``I was just beginning to feel a part of things. And then I got hurt.''
During practice, Wilson's right foot plunged into a water sprinkler hole. Florida secondary coach Ron Zook watched it happen.
``It was a non-contact drill. I think all we had on were shorts and helmets,'' he said. ``Shawn was running stride for stride, covering his man. It was a freak thing, really. It looked gruesome on tape. He completely blew it out.''
Wilson tore his anterior cruciate ligament and ``a whole lot of other stuff,'' he says. Surgery was followed by months of daily therapy, but late that fall, he envisioned playing in his first game.
With Florida crushing Vanderbilt in the fourth quarter, Wilson saw his chance. ``I came so close,'' he says. ``We were up something like 52-7. I just knew,'' his excitement builds, ``I just knew I was going to get into that game. But I had this big brace on. . . .''
He never got in that game or any other. Wilson watched the Gators win the Sugar Bowl from his family's Beach home, and he knew he'd never go back to Gainesville. Before the injury, he had looked into transferring to Virginia, but that chance was lost. The coaches were no longer interested in a player who'd acquired a bum knee.
Wilson mentions possibly playing at Norfolk State. He hasn't talked to any coaches there yet.
Wilson is restless, and that bodes well for his knee. It gnaws at him now and then if he sits too long. The checkmark scar from the surgery is readily visible, but Wilson, wearing a faded pair of blue shorts, seems hardly conscious of it.
He spends the early part of his days at ODU, where his major is education. During the afternoons, he's on the sidelines at Cox, coaching the defensive backs. The coaching is an adjustment for someone used to being on the field.
``I'm not too much older than some of the kids,'' he said with a grin.
Wilson has two years of eligibility remaining. When he left Florida, he enrolled at Hampton University and thought about playing there, but ``It didn't work out,'' he said.
Zook doesn't know if Wilson could ever play again. ``I would never say never,'' he says. ``But it was as bad a knee injury as I've ever seen on tape.''
But Wilson has other ideas. Twirling the football that Miami Dolphin Louis Oliver inscribed ``Keep the faith'' while Wilson was recuperating, he talks about the game he misses.
``I've always wanted to play free safety,'' he says. ``I like to hit, and at free safety, you get cleaner shots. At corner, you're close to the man; the hit isn't as clean.''
``I think I could play again,'' he says. Nodding, he adds, ``I'm still a player.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
Shawn Wilson is coaching at Cox High, taking classes at Old Dominion
and talking about possibly returning to football next year. At left,
Wilson gives some pointers to Jeff Terry, a cornerback who just
joined the Cox team.
by CNB