Jackson Shelstad is enjoying the temporary quiet
The basketball buzz has settled down for the meantime and now Shelstad is back to being one of the state’s best all-around athletes for Jon Eagle’s West Linn Lions.
PORTLAND — Things have settled down for Jackson Shelstad.
He’s no longer interrupted at all hours of the day by calls from college coaches regaling him with recruiting pitches. No longer spending his freetime concerned with what comes next.
The West Linn senior has had the privilege of slowing down for a moment. And frankly, he’s enjoying the quiet.
“It's been a lot more peaceful…,” he said. “It was fun talking to a lot of those [coaches], but now it's good to just have that one relationship and build on that.”
After committing to Dana Altman’s Ducks last November, Shelstad, a 4-star, top-60 recruit and top-10 point guard in the class of 2023, won Gatorade Player of the Year in Oregon. He’s a smooth shooter from the outside and a savvy passer that manipulates angles well who averaged 27 points, 5.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 4.3 steals per game through 23 games as a junior.
After the conclusion of the basketball season, Shelstad reemerged in late August, deciding to pick up an old hobby he’d since relegated amid his pursuits on the hardwood.
For the first time since he was a freshman wide receiver and cornerback for the Lions, before he made waves as a national basketball recruit, Shelstad is playing football again and first year coach Jon Eagle — who led Camas High School to two state championships in Washington before accepting the West Linn job ahead of this season — has a two-way athletic weapon at his disposal that he didn’t think he’d be lucky enough to coach.
“We hear so many kids in basketball, in particular, say, ‘You know, I really want to focus on this one sport, it's my best shot to get a scholarship. I don't want to play football and I'm worried about getting hurt,’” Eagle said. “Every football coach has heard that story. And then here we have a kid who already has a basketball scholarship, comes out and plays football and he's doing very, very well.”
Eagle is still feeling things out at West Linn. On the field, his team is off and running. The Lions are 4-1 and ranked No. 4 amongst 6A schools in the state, according to OSAA. But he isn't a teacher at the school, so he’s had to put in the extra effort to get to know his players off of it.
Ahead of the season, he went and watched Shelstad hoop and later sat down with him one on one. Eagle asked him what his goals were, what he wanted to accomplish in his return to football. With his athletic future well in hand, Shelstad’s answer was simple — he just wanted to compete. Having fun with his teammates, while things are still relatively low stakes, was important, too.
It hasn’t necessarily been a flawless transition. Shelstad is still reacclimating to the physical rigors and technical intricacies of the sport which once shared the mantle as his favorite.
“It's actually been a little bit tougher than I thought,” he said. “There's so many little details that go into football, like footwork as a wide receiver and defensive back. You can have all the athleticism, but you still gotta have the right technique and skills.”
At least he’s got the former.
“Anytime the ball is in his hands, he can take it to the house,” Eagle said. “He's that guy. Yeah, he's electric.”
In West Linn’s 49-0 win over Lake Oswego last week, Shelstad capitalized on a broken play and caught his first touchdown of the season. The hope is that he can continue to complement an offense captained by WSU-commit Sam Leavitt, which features one of the state’s best receivers, and Shelstad’s closest friends, Mark Hamper out wide, among others. It’s a unit, and team, that looks poised for a deep playoff run.
“He was able to come out after a few weeks and be just as skilled as a lot of our starters. I mean, he's really impressed me,” wide receiver and defensive back Wiley Donnerberg said. “It's just another aspect of our team I think you have to worry about defending.”
Eagle and Shelstad understand why multi-sport athletes have shied away from football in the past. The injury concerns are legitimate, but Shelstad’s return has him rethinking his high school career.
“If I would have done it over again, I probably would have just played football all four years,” he said. “I think it's good to play a couple of different sports. It’s good for a lot of stuff: your IQ, your athleticism… I'm not really missing any of my basketball progress. I'm still getting my workouts in.”
The basketball buzz has settled down for the meantime and now Shelstad is back to being one of the state’s best all-around athletes.
These days, the only calls he receives from college coaches are those in Eugene. Altman’s been checking in with his future point guard several times a week, establishing a relationship that could help define the ceiling of Ducks’ teams to come.
Those answers will reveal themselves in time, but before Shelstad is pushing the tempo of Altman’s offense, he’s taking a breath and enjoying the calm of football.
— Shane Hoffmann
@shane_hoffmann
Very nice article.