WHITEHALL – When you’ve been out of action for a while, it’s good to discover that people remember you, and you’re still very much on their radar.

Whitehall senior Graycen Shepherd experienced that great feeling last month at a football camp at Bowling Green State University.

The drills camp was the first live football action Shepherd had experienced since last August, when he tore the ACL and meniscus in his left knee on a play in practice, ended up having surgery and missed his entire junior season.

Shepherd’s college football potential seemed unlimited following his sophomore year, when he was selected as an All-West Michigan Conference defensive lineman with two full years of high school still ahead of him.

But he had no idea where he stood with the colleges these days, until the Bowling Green camp on June 11, when the coaches took a good look at him, decided he was everything he seemed to be before the injury, and sent him away with a standing offer for a full-ride football scholarship.

Whitehall senior Graycen Shepherd, who recently attended a skills camp at Bowling Green State University and left with a scholarship offer.

“I didn’t expect an offer,” said Shepherd, 17. “I just wanted them to see me, but then I walked out of there with an offer. It was pretty cool.”

It’s been a long road back to the gridiron for Shepherd, who set an early goal to make the Whitehall varsity as a freshman, achieved it, and became a standout by his sophomore season.

His rapid development came to a temporary halt last year when the injury threw a curve into his plans and tested his determination to return.

The Vikings were practicing about two weeks before their opener against Kalamazoo Hackett when the mishap occurred.

“I was going out for a pass and caught it, then I turned upfield and planted weird and my knee popped,” Shepherd said. “I kept playing that day, because there was no pain or swelling, and I think I messed it up a lot more. When they opened it up on the day of the surgery, they said it was in a million pieces and completely ground down.”

Shepherd jumps to block a pass during his sophomore season, as a pair of teammates try to complete a quarterback sack.

Whitehall went on to have a great season, posting an 8-3 record and winning a share of the West Michigan Conference championship. Shepherd said he was happy for his team, but it was agonizing for him to watch and not be able to contribute.

He said the low point came on the night of Sept. 3, just a few days after his surgery. He was laid up and could not be on the sidelines, so he tried to watch on TV when Whitehall played Oakridge and lost the conference opener 32-19.

“That was the first time in my high school career that I was nowhere near a football field on a Friday night,” he said. “I turned it off in the first quarter – I was too upset to even finish watching it. That whole first month I was pretty upset, mad at the world, but I couldn’t change it.”

Shepherd said it took about a month and a half after the surgery to begin upper body workouts, and even longer to start full workouts. He said he wasn’t sure what kind of football shape he was in until he hit the field at Bowling Green and got a thumbs-up from the coaches.

“It made me feel confident that the work I put in has been worth it, and confident in my future,” Shepherd said about the scholarship offer. “Of course nothing is official until I write my name somewhere (on a national letter of intent), but it made me feel like I was going somewhere.

Shepherd, in the three-point stance, made varsity as a freshman, became a standout as a sophomore, but missed his entire junior season.

“Before I hurt my knee I was getting calls and texts from Power 5 schools, then everything just dropped off. They all found out I got hurt, and nobody wants damaged goods. So for Bowling Green to take a chance on me was huge.”

Shepherd is a ways away from making a decision regarding college football. He is headed out this week to participate in a football camp at prestigious Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and has recently been contacted by a recruiter from Montana State University.

“That was the first one,” Shepherd said about the Bowling Green offer. “This weekend I’m headed to Yale, and I think I have a pretty good chance to get an offer from them. That’s where my mom wants me to go. I always liked the idea of maybe playing for one of the service academies, too (Army, Navy, Air Force), and MAC football (schools like Central Michigan, Western Michigan and Bowling Green) would be awesome because it’s so close to home.

“I think, just because I didn’t play last year, I’m going to wait and see how many opportunities I can get. The more choices I have, the better.”

In the meantime, Shepherd is extremely excited about his pending senior season at Whitehall and finally getting a chance to play in a real game for the first time in two years.

Shepherd will have added responsibilities on defense this year, because the coaches plan to switch him from end to the crucial middle linebacker position.

Whitehall will open the 2022 season on Aug. 25 with a non-conference game at Hudsonville Unity Christian.

“I’m amped – ecstatic,” Shepherd said about the coming season. “We have a lot of returners, a lot of guys who have bought into the system, and I think we will have the horses to go pretty far.”

2022 Whitehall varsity football schedule

8/25 at Hudsonville Unity Christian
9/1 at Hastings
9/9 Alpena
9/16 Montague
9/23 Manistee
9/30 at Oakridge
10/7 Ludington
10/14 at Fremont
10/21 at Orchard View