pirate4state
08-09-2006, 09:17 AM
Horns WR Shipley, health intact, hopes to have last laugh
Injuries have kept record-breaking receiver from making an impact with Horns
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/04/27/79/image_4679274.jpg
Jordan Shipley has heard them all. Every last joke, which is exactly what he hopes they are. The last joke.
Good-natured or not, he's been a running joke instead of a wide receiver who can run as fast as any and catch better than most.
Jordan Shipley, one of the greatest receivers in Texas high school football history, was an absolute ironman until he hit the University of Texas campus. Now, after being dogged by injuries for two years, the Burnet product is healthy and ready to produce for the Longhorns.
But he's laughed right along with them because for the first time since 2003, the third-year Texas sophomore is intact. Well, through two practices anyway.
"Yeah, it's pretty funny," Shipley said. "I've seen the pictures and all the crazy stuff, asking, 'Do I really exist?' "
For the record, he does. And he's never looked better. Or faster. In fact, Shipley may be the best wide receiver I've never seen. In a game, anyway. Should he remain upright, he could possibly be the best receiver on a team loaded with them.
"His upside is tremendous," receivers coach Bobby Kennedy said. "I'm not saying he's going to start, but we see him being a key guy."
Real key. Like on curls and fly patterns and end-arounds and holding on extra-points and, who knows, maybe kick returns. After all, he returned the opening kickoff of the state championship game for a touchdown, one of 18 he ran back the distance during his career at Burnet. And the only reason he wasn't the holder in high school was he was the kicker.
Did we say he's versatile? At least when he's healthy, which hasn't been often.
In the meantime, Shipley knows he's a punch line who's taken some of life's worst punches.
So, Jordan, what did you do last weekend?
I went fishing.
Did you get hurt?
Bada bing. That's a favorite of his Longhorn teammates. So is he, and has been since he first wowed spectators during two-a-days in 2004 when he caught everything thrown in his direction and figured mightily in Mack Brown's plans.
"He was making amazing catches before he got hurt," tight end Neale Tweedie said. "He's still making amazing catches, the kind that make people go ooh and aah."
After a ligament-ripping knee injury sans contact as a freshman and a series of debilitating hamstring pulls and yet another knee surgery aborted his first two college seasons, Shipley is more than ready to be the player who scored a state-record 73 career touchdowns and caught 264 passes for 5,424 yards at Burnet.
While Shipley was away from the game he loves so much, Vince Young became a national icon, Limas Sweed turned in the catch of the season, Billy Pittman, Quan Cosby and friends made tons of other receptions and the team he's very much a part of won a pair of Rose Bowls and a national championship.
He has the ring to prove it. He just never wears it.
For two seasons, Jordan Shipley sat and watched.
Shipley, who until college never missed a game because of injury starting as a seventh-grader and missed just one practice because of a turf toe, went to three 2005 road games and spent them on the sidelines.
Shipley, who played in a state championship game as a junior with a staph infection in his toe that was bad enough to hospitalize him for three days after the game, watched his best friends celebrate in Pasadena.
Shipley, who suffered a concussion in the first half of the state title game as a senior and played on even though he couldn't even find his locker at halftime, took what he calls "mental reps."
He's attended every receivers meeting the last two seasons, but even Kennedy notes he's "more reserved" than the others. He excelled last spring, but gave everyone pause when he went for a tipped ball in the spring game, took a helmet in his stomach and had the wind knocked from him.
"I couldn't breathe at all," he said, "but I didn't want anybody to think I was hurt."
Through all the setbacks, the delays, the operations, one of the greatest receivers in Texas high school football history has never wallowed in self-pity, never once uttered the words why me.
"No, no, no," Bob Shipley, his father and high school coach, said. "I've never heard him ever have a pity party. I don't guess I've ever heard him say a negative word."
When Bob and Sharon Shipley first got word that their son's knee was shattered back in August 2004, they took it hard. Bob still recalls the look on his wife's face.
"You'd probably have thought there was a death in the family," he said.
Football means everything to the Shipley family. Hadn't Jordan's dad been a rugged, 215-pound fullback at Abilene Christian who tore an ACL in his knee in the fourth game of his freshman season and played three more years after a doctor advised him to never play again? Didn't Jordan's uncle Stephen leave TCU as the school's second-leading receiver of all time?
Naturally, Bob and Sharon Shipley hurriedly drove the 50 minutes from the Burnet practice field to the doctor's office in North Austin and, for the first time, they saw tears in their son's eyes. It would be the last time, too.
They've seen only determination since.
Remember, this is a player who played in two state football finals but never won, who went to state in track and golf but never won, who got so ticked off about finishing any place but first that he threw all of his medals onto the top of the Burnet gym.
"He's got silver medals and bronze ones, but never gold," Bob said. "And he'd take 'em off the ribbon and chunk 'em up there."
He's had to salve his wounds by eating grandma Mimi's pecan pie or landing an 11-pound bass on Lake Austin or hanging out with former Burnet and current A&M quarterback Stephen McGee and hunting with buddies Derek Lokey and Colt McCoy or praying at the Oaks West Church of Christ.
"He's very spiritually minded," his dad said. "He told me, without a doubt, he's learned not to pray for patience. He said if you pray for patience, God will make you be patient."
He's had plenty of that. So maybe the jokes will end and his career will start.
Maybe he'll start running and catching passes and doing what's come naturally, and not give his injuries another thought. Maybe that will happen Sept. 2 in the season-opener.
"It's going to mean the world to me," he said. "I don't think I was meant to play (before). Maybe God's wanting me to be here the next four years. But I think I've paid my dues. It'll be one of the greatest experiences of my life, knowing I can go out the tunnel and have a chance to play."
And then maybe Longhorn fans can come up with a new ending, when they ask, 'Did you hear the one about the guy . . ."
kbohls@statesman.com
I really do hope he gets a shot this year! :thumbsup:
link (http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/08/9bohls.html)
Injuries have kept record-breaking receiver from making an impact with Horns
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/04/27/79/image_4679274.jpg
Jordan Shipley has heard them all. Every last joke, which is exactly what he hopes they are. The last joke.
Good-natured or not, he's been a running joke instead of a wide receiver who can run as fast as any and catch better than most.
Jordan Shipley, one of the greatest receivers in Texas high school football history, was an absolute ironman until he hit the University of Texas campus. Now, after being dogged by injuries for two years, the Burnet product is healthy and ready to produce for the Longhorns.
But he's laughed right along with them because for the first time since 2003, the third-year Texas sophomore is intact. Well, through two practices anyway.
"Yeah, it's pretty funny," Shipley said. "I've seen the pictures and all the crazy stuff, asking, 'Do I really exist?' "
For the record, he does. And he's never looked better. Or faster. In fact, Shipley may be the best wide receiver I've never seen. In a game, anyway. Should he remain upright, he could possibly be the best receiver on a team loaded with them.
"His upside is tremendous," receivers coach Bobby Kennedy said. "I'm not saying he's going to start, but we see him being a key guy."
Real key. Like on curls and fly patterns and end-arounds and holding on extra-points and, who knows, maybe kick returns. After all, he returned the opening kickoff of the state championship game for a touchdown, one of 18 he ran back the distance during his career at Burnet. And the only reason he wasn't the holder in high school was he was the kicker.
Did we say he's versatile? At least when he's healthy, which hasn't been often.
In the meantime, Shipley knows he's a punch line who's taken some of life's worst punches.
So, Jordan, what did you do last weekend?
I went fishing.
Did you get hurt?
Bada bing. That's a favorite of his Longhorn teammates. So is he, and has been since he first wowed spectators during two-a-days in 2004 when he caught everything thrown in his direction and figured mightily in Mack Brown's plans.
"He was making amazing catches before he got hurt," tight end Neale Tweedie said. "He's still making amazing catches, the kind that make people go ooh and aah."
After a ligament-ripping knee injury sans contact as a freshman and a series of debilitating hamstring pulls and yet another knee surgery aborted his first two college seasons, Shipley is more than ready to be the player who scored a state-record 73 career touchdowns and caught 264 passes for 5,424 yards at Burnet.
While Shipley was away from the game he loves so much, Vince Young became a national icon, Limas Sweed turned in the catch of the season, Billy Pittman, Quan Cosby and friends made tons of other receptions and the team he's very much a part of won a pair of Rose Bowls and a national championship.
He has the ring to prove it. He just never wears it.
For two seasons, Jordan Shipley sat and watched.
Shipley, who until college never missed a game because of injury starting as a seventh-grader and missed just one practice because of a turf toe, went to three 2005 road games and spent them on the sidelines.
Shipley, who played in a state championship game as a junior with a staph infection in his toe that was bad enough to hospitalize him for three days after the game, watched his best friends celebrate in Pasadena.
Shipley, who suffered a concussion in the first half of the state title game as a senior and played on even though he couldn't even find his locker at halftime, took what he calls "mental reps."
He's attended every receivers meeting the last two seasons, but even Kennedy notes he's "more reserved" than the others. He excelled last spring, but gave everyone pause when he went for a tipped ball in the spring game, took a helmet in his stomach and had the wind knocked from him.
"I couldn't breathe at all," he said, "but I didn't want anybody to think I was hurt."
Through all the setbacks, the delays, the operations, one of the greatest receivers in Texas high school football history has never wallowed in self-pity, never once uttered the words why me.
"No, no, no," Bob Shipley, his father and high school coach, said. "I've never heard him ever have a pity party. I don't guess I've ever heard him say a negative word."
When Bob and Sharon Shipley first got word that their son's knee was shattered back in August 2004, they took it hard. Bob still recalls the look on his wife's face.
"You'd probably have thought there was a death in the family," he said.
Football means everything to the Shipley family. Hadn't Jordan's dad been a rugged, 215-pound fullback at Abilene Christian who tore an ACL in his knee in the fourth game of his freshman season and played three more years after a doctor advised him to never play again? Didn't Jordan's uncle Stephen leave TCU as the school's second-leading receiver of all time?
Naturally, Bob and Sharon Shipley hurriedly drove the 50 minutes from the Burnet practice field to the doctor's office in North Austin and, for the first time, they saw tears in their son's eyes. It would be the last time, too.
They've seen only determination since.
Remember, this is a player who played in two state football finals but never won, who went to state in track and golf but never won, who got so ticked off about finishing any place but first that he threw all of his medals onto the top of the Burnet gym.
"He's got silver medals and bronze ones, but never gold," Bob said. "And he'd take 'em off the ribbon and chunk 'em up there."
He's had to salve his wounds by eating grandma Mimi's pecan pie or landing an 11-pound bass on Lake Austin or hanging out with former Burnet and current A&M quarterback Stephen McGee and hunting with buddies Derek Lokey and Colt McCoy or praying at the Oaks West Church of Christ.
"He's very spiritually minded," his dad said. "He told me, without a doubt, he's learned not to pray for patience. He said if you pray for patience, God will make you be patient."
He's had plenty of that. So maybe the jokes will end and his career will start.
Maybe he'll start running and catching passes and doing what's come naturally, and not give his injuries another thought. Maybe that will happen Sept. 2 in the season-opener.
"It's going to mean the world to me," he said. "I don't think I was meant to play (before). Maybe God's wanting me to be here the next four years. But I think I've paid my dues. It'll be one of the greatest experiences of my life, knowing I can go out the tunnel and have a chance to play."
And then maybe Longhorn fans can come up with a new ending, when they ask, 'Did you hear the one about the guy . . ."
kbohls@statesman.com
I really do hope he gets a shot this year! :thumbsup:
link (http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/08/9bohls.html)