Daekwon Shepherd 'everything a student-athlete should be'

LYNN — Any of Daekwon Shepherd’s recent accomplishments is impressive. Straight-A student at Lynn English, where he is a senior. The Item’s defensive football player of the year and a captain for the Bulldogs. All while working almost 30 hours a week at the McDonald’s on the Lynnway.

There are certain kids for whom teachers, educators, and coaches reserve their highest praise. Shepherd is one of them.

“He’s the type of kid that you get out of bed and come to work for in the morning,” said Kara Baletsa, Shepherd’s guidance counselor at English.

That he has stayed focused while dealing with a broken heart after the death of his mother this summer following a lengthy illness makes his accomplishments even more impressive.

“He’s just an amazing adult person,” Baletsa said. “He’s a kid still, but he had to grow up and he’s amazing on so many different levels. But the reason why he’s so special is because he doesn’t actually realize how incredible he is, and that’s why everyone loves him.

“It’s not just me, everyone loves him. Anybody in this building would do anything for him because he’s never asked for anything. He works hard, he does what he’s supposed to do, he stays out of trouble. He represents everything a student-athlete should be.

“His mother died in June but his report card was straight A’s. This is a kid who was barely getting C’s his freshman year. Every year he’s progressively gotten better. His circumstances have gotten progressively worse, but he has gotten progressively better. And he knows what he has to do and when he needs to do it. He never would ask.”

Shepherd doesn’t like to talk about himself, but Baletsa is one of the few he’ll confide in.

"She helped me a lot with everything. Everything,” he says. “If I need someone to talk to, that's who I go to. I don't really like talking to anyone, but she helps me out."

English head football coach Chris Carroll has witnessed Shepherd’s accomplishments on and off the field.

“As a football player, he’s one of those guys that’s relatively easy to coach,” Carroll says. “You put him in a position and he’s so naturally gifted and he works so hard at it. He makes plays. So as a coach, you take it for granted sometimes. You put him out there and he just makes things happen.

“As a kid, he’s even better. As good as he is at football, he’s even better as a kid. For all he does, he goes to school, comes to the meetings before practice, goes to practice, goes and works til 11 at night, and does the whole thing the next day. It’s a lot for a high school senior. I think it’s a lot for anybody. So I think in that sense he definitely leads by example, just by what he does.

“He doesn’t do it because he wants to. He does it because in a lot of respects he has to. He’s a really impressive young man.”

Shepherd was all over the field for the Bulldogs this fall. The Northeastern Conference/North Defensive Player of the Year made 135 tackles – eight for a loss – forced two fumbles, had one fumble recovery, and returned one interception for a touchdown as a defensive back.

As a running back, he rushed for 897 yards and 11 touchdowns. He also served as the team’s kicker and punter.

As a first-year coach, Carroll leaned heavily on Shepherd.

“It takes so much pressure off when you have a kid like him,” Carroll said. “It’s tough when you’re a senior and a new coaching staff comes in. It happened to me when I was a senior in college. You’ve been doing things for three years and now a new coaching staff comes in. It’s your senior year, you had it all mapped out and now these new guys come in. But having someone like him -- he was open to switching to running back, he was open to the change of the defense. And he really kind of excelled in whatever position we put him in.

“I think a lot of it was just because of his natural ability. But he is a very smart football player, and coupling that with his physical attributes, he just took a ton of pressure off having him.”

He doesn’t like to ask for help. He doesn’t want to put anyone out. Neither does he like to talk about himself. Shepherd, 18, lives with his older sister, younger sister, and 2-year-old niece. When he talks about her, he shakes his head, but a smile lights up his face. His older brother lives nearby. His family is close. But it’s not the same.

“It's been hard at home,” he said. “I come home to my sister and all that, but it's just not the same. I've been struggling financially, not too bad, not to the point where I have to stress about it."

He speaks with a calmness that belies his age and his circumstances. He addresses others with maturity and respect.

“He’s polite, he’s respectful. He shakes your hand and looks you in the eye, which is not common among his peer group,” Baletsa said. “They don’t know appropriate respect yet, but you can tell he was raised by, obviously, a very strong woman who battled cancer for years. And his sister who filled in didn’t miss a beat and has the same outstanding work ethic. She is always at work or going to work. He has a brother who’s a firefighter in Boston, but obviously is a positive, strong male role model, because Daekwon is a gentleman.”

Football has helped.

"It helps me keep my mind off it, helps keep me preoccupied,” he said. “If I didn't play sports and didn't work so much, it'd probably be harder. But I'm in school all day, then I go to practice, and then I go to work. Now I go straight from school to work. I'm busy all the time so it's not just there in my head. I think about it from time to time.

"I work in study halls and stuff. I don't have a computer at home so, and I have a study hall, so I

just do all my work on the computer here. I try not to procrastinate much because then that

would be bad. Once I push it to the side, it's going to be there for a while, and it probably won't get done. So when it's due, I try and have it done earlier than the due date so I don't have to worry about anything."

Shepherd was going to run track this winter, but opted against it so he could work more. He plans to be back for the outdoor track team in the spring, though.

He’s looking at colleges now. ”It’s stressful. It’s hard. But it’s not going too bad right now,” he says.

Baletsa and Carroll, along with his sister and brother, are helping him through the process, dealing with college coaches and recruiters. Baletsa thinks he could get a full scholarship. Carroll thinks his best position is on the defensive side, possibly strong safety.

For now, though, he’s looking forward to the rest of his senior year.

"Just to maintain my grades, basically,” he said. “Just to maintain my grades and get into a good college. I don't know what I want to go to college for yet."

Follow Maureen Mullen on Twitter at @MaureenAMullen.