Trail's Shockey headed for Glenville State
Feb. 2—hico — Four years ago, Talon Shockey brought a lively leg to the Midland Trail High football program.
This coming fall, the 6-foot, 145-pound Shockey will test out his kicking and punting skills as a member of the Glenville State University football team.
On Thursday, Shockey signed to attend Glenville and play football for the Pioneers. He was joined by family, teammates, friends, coaches and school administrators during a special ceremony in the school gym Thursday morning, the day after a county-wide school snow day prevented him from signing on national letter of intent day.
"I'm very excited," Shockey said. "It's a big change in my life, going to the next level to do something I love, play football.
"I didn't start playing football until I was a freshman in high school but I've done soccer all of my life."
He says he has continued honing his kicking and punting game "throughout the whole year."
"I've been injured a couple of times, and that's been a little bit of a setback," Shockey added.
To get prepared for life as a Pioneer, Shockey says the keys are "lifting and just keep on kicking. I'm going to be adjusting (and preparing for the next level) and go to camps as they come. Me and my dad (Trail assistant coach Shane Shockey) are going to talk it out."
What attracted him to Glenville, a member of the Mountain East Conference? "They have a beautiful campus. I really like their coaching staff and the facilities up there. The field is really nice. and all the players seemed nice, too."
Shockey plans to major in nursing at the Gilmer County institution. "My Plan A is to go to the NFL. If that don't work out, I'll try to go somewhere that involves nursing."
"Talon's a huge asset," said Midland Trail head coach Jeremy Moore. "He came in as a soccer kid and wanted to kick around the football. He worked at his craft and really dedicated himself to being a better football player as far as the kicking aspect.
"To be honest, if he didn't battle with calf issues this year, we would have used him on offense and defense, as well. He's just a testament to setting an example to the rest of our kids that, if you put your mind to something to get better at something, you will, and it will pay dividends in the future."
Shockey will simply need repetitions to continue to improve, Moore said.
"He didn't get to punt a whole lot because we turned the ball over this year," the coach said. "He didn't get to kick off much because we didn't score a ton.
"Hopefully Glenville State will give him more opportunities to use his talent."
Email: skeenan@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @gb_scribe
