THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 2, 1996 TAG: 9610020772
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: THE CLASS OF '91
It was probably the best group of recruits ever to come out of
Virginia Beach. Brandon Noble took off for Penn State, Tony DeSue for
Clemson, Lamonte Still for Virginia and Shawn Wilson for Florida. They
left with dreams of the big time, of national championships, maybe
even of Heisman Trophies. But a lot can happen in five years.
Today: Shawn Wilson's story.
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 133 lines
It's easy for Shawn Wilson to imagine what could have been, particularly when it flashes across television screens nearly every weekend.
Had things gone as expected, Wilson would be lining up with All-American candidate Anthone Lott in the secondary for top-ranked Florida Saturday against Arkansas.
But Wilson's career as a Gator hit a pot hole - a sprinkler-head hole to be more exact - and he now watches Florida football from a distance while finishing his undergraduate studies at Norfolk State.
According to former Florida defensive secondary coach Ron Zook, when Wilson arrived at the Gainesville campus four years ago as part of one of Florida's best recruiting classes ever, Wilson had an edge on the other recruits.
``Shawn was a little ahead of the others when he got there,'' said Zook, who now coaches the secondary for the Pittsburgh Steelers. ``In fact, in the first couple of scrimmages we had, Shawn was playing a lot as a true freshman.''
The Gators redshirted Wilson and Lott, allowing them a year to mature. They were going to be the cornerstones, or cornerbacks, of future Florida greatness.
Then it happened. A freakish accident.
Working one-on-one passing drills during spring practice, Wilson stepped in a sprinkler-head hole, tearing his right anterior cruciate ligament, lateral cruciate ligament, calf muscle and hamstring.
``On tape, it looked real bad,'' Zook said. ``It was one of the worst knee injuries I'd ever seen.''
Surgery was followed by intense rehabilitation. The following fall, Wilson was back with the Gators. But he was damaged goods.
``I just couldn't compete with those guys,'' said Wilson, a second-team all-state defensive back at Bayside High School. ``In spring training, Anthone and I were competing for the starting cornerback spot on one side. Maybe he wins it, maybe I do. Whoever didn't get it was probably going to move to the other corner and get a shot at starting there.''
Wilson returned the following season, but wore a bulky brace on the knee and never made it into a game. Homesick and unable to come up with a reason to remain in Gainesville, he withdrew from school.
He enrolled at Old Dominion University and began coaching at Cox High School as a volunteer assistant. That's when the desire to play football returned.
``When I started coaching the defensive backs at Cox, I started demonstrating techniques to the players there and my knee felt pretty good,'' Wilson said.
The thought of playing again became reality when Norfolk State assistant coach Jim Flowers saw Wilson at a Cox practice and asked if he was interested in giving college football one more shot. Wilson had a year of eligibility remaining - the NCAA's five-year clock starts ticking the day a scholarship player enrolls - and he transferred to Norfolk State in January.
``I was already thinking about going out for the Hampton Roads Sharks (a semi-pro team),'' Wilson said. ``I figured I'd give it a shot.''
Two Saturdays ago, the Spartans traveled to Jacksonville Stadium to meet Bethune-Cookman College. As fans filtered into the 73,000-seat complex, the Tennessee-Florida game was being shown on Jumbotron screens beyond each end zone.
While Wilson stretched at midfield, Lott recovered a fumble and returned it 27 yards for a touchdown and a 35-0 lead. Florida would hold on for a 35-29 victory in front of an NCAA-record crowd of 107,608.
Wilson could not help but think that could have been him, instead of Lott.
``I had just talked to Anthone on the phone the night before,'' said Wilson, who remains friends with Lott. ``I was happy for him, but I was also a little disappointed.''
Disappointed as much by the way things were going at NSU as with the way things had gone at Florida. After four games in a reserve role, Wilson quit. That game against Bethune-Cookman, on a field that is home to the Gator Bowl, on a field where Wilson once dressed as a Florida Gator during his freshman season, would be his last for the Spartans.
``I was frustrated,'' he said. ``I was sitting the bench when I thought I should be starting.''
NSU head coach Darnell Moore says he knew of Wilson's frustrations, but that the Spartans ``came out of spring training with a starting 11 and weren't going to deviate from that unit because they all knew their responsibilities. Shawn didn't work out with us in the spring. If he had, it would have been easier to work him in.''
Wilson says his 18-hour course load made it almost impossible to participate in spring drills.
``I was trying to get my grades straight,'' Wilson said. ``Besides, I knew all the defenses. We played cover-two, man-to-man and cover-three at Florida and I coached those same defenses at Cox.''
To Moore, it wasn't that simple. Wilson hadn't played in an actual game since high school.
``When you haven't played for two or three years, it's going to take six weeks, maybe two months to get it all back,'' Moore said. ``Michael Jordan, the greatest player ever, took a year and a half off from basketball and when he came back it even took him some time to get back to where he'd been. And he hadn't even been hurt.
``The crazy thing is that on the day when Shawn didn't show up for practice, we were going to tell him he was going to start against Delaware State.''
Wilson said he is content to finish his undergraduate work and seek a high school teaching and coaching position. He completed more than 50 hours of studies at Florida and 32 hours of classes at ODU before transferring to Norfolk State. He figures he's two semesters shy of having enough credit hours for a physical education degree.
He has become everyman's commuter student, riding his Honda CBR 600 motorcycle from his home in the Aragona section of Virginia Beach, fighting for a parking spot and hustling across campus in time for class.
Next fall, he says he'll hustle a handful of area coaches for a volunteer spot on one of their staffs. Fortunately, he has many contacts.
His high school coach at Bayside, Bill King, is still there. Former Bayside assistants David Heath and Jeff Ballance are now head coaches at Norview and Princess Anne.
``And my dad (Salem High assistant coach Roscoe Coles) might get a head coaching job somewhere,'' Wilson said. ``I'll help whoever needs help.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
HUY NGUYEN
The Virginian-Pilot
Former Bayside High star Shawn Wilson wonders if he would be
starring for No. 1 Florida had he not blown out his knee when he
stepped on a sprinkler-head hole. by CNB