The Walk-on Dream: Dawud Shorts

I come from a family of football players. My dad played in college, and my older brother was a four star prospect, who played at Texas Tech and finished his career at Northwestern State. They’re probably the two biggest reasons I got into football.

I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana originally and that's all you do out there. You play football, so I grew up loving the game. If you asked me in seventh grade where I was going to go to school, I would have said I’m LSU to play football. LSU was 45 minutes up the road and I watched them win two national championships. I wanted to be a part of the NCAA and go to bowl games and stuff like that so it's always been my goal.

I went to a big 6A school in Texas where football is everything.  I was All-Houston my senior year and I figured I’d get some scholarship offers. I remember the week before signing day I texted every college coach I had in my phone, and all of them told me their class was full. I was in touch with a lot of coaches, but nobody pulled the trigger because I was undersized and I played so many different positions. I was good at a lot of stuff but not really great at one thing.

The night before signing day I was at work washing dishes when I got a call from the coach at East Texas Baptist University, a Division III school. A week later, I committed and signed. I had a full schedule for the fall semester. Two before fall camp I got a call from the coach at Lamar. He said they needed somebody at my position and that I was too good to be playing Division III. He told me they had a spot for me if I wanted to walk on.

I sat down with my parents and realized it was a lot more expensive to play at a Division III private school compared to a public school. Because of the money situation, I ended up choosing Lamar. When I got there, the biggest thing for me was proving that I belonged. I had missed fall camp, so the first week of practice was the hardest week of practice of my life. I ended up making the travel squad as a freshman despite having only a month to practice. 

Up until last semester, I was working every time we were on break. In the summer I would have to pay for my room, and my classes, so instead I’d go home. I never did summer workouts because I was at home working so I could save up enough money for tuition for the next semester. When I’d come back to Fall camp I was expected to be in the same shape as my teammates.

It definitely got to a point where I thought maybe it was time to give up. Really just between my teammates and my family, it was impossible for me to stop. My parents sacrificed so much to get me here. I’ve made lifelong friends and brothers on this team. They all knew my situation and what I was doing just to be on the team. Every time I thought about giving up, they’d say, ‘We know you’re close, keep pushing.’

It was tough working through school and football. There were days where I’d go to class, then practice, then go to work at 5:30pm. I’m a waiter at Buffalo Wild Wings and we don’t close until midnight, so if I had to close, I wasn’t getting into bed sometimes until 1:30 in the morning. And it’s physical work. It’s a job where I’m on my feet all night running around. I was always exhausted but knew I had to keep pushing.

Last semester in my position meeting, I asked coach Morgan if there had been any thought about putting me on scholarship. He just said ‘Yeah we've talked about it, but we’ve got to see where the money is.’

I was like, ‘Alright, I've heard that a million times.’ The next week was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. That day we had a 6am run before we went home. It was probably the worst conditions you could ask for. It was freezing cold and raining. No one wanted to be there but we came together and had one of the best runs of the season. After the run, Coach called us into a huddle. He called me and my teammate Caleb up. At first I thought he was just going to say how we’d been working hard but then he kept going.

As he gets talking I start to think, ‘Maybe this is happening’ and then I lock eyes with one of my best friends on the team and he’s nodding his head. Once Coach announces that we’re getting put on scholarship, you just see the raw emotion of the whole team come out. 

I texted my parents about the news and then went back to bed. My Mom responded and told me to call her as soon as I woke up. That call with my Mom was the most important thing. I knew that it just took a huge weight off of my parents shoulders. My parents have sacrificed so much for me and my brother and sister to get us here, so that was the most rewarding thing for me.The funny thing is I didn't even realize what retroactive meant until my mom told me.

Even the people in my job were happy for me. I love my managers, they were always so understanding. Some days I’d come in and they could tell I was tired. I’d have bags under my eyes and they’d tell me to relax a bit. When I told them, I think they felt they had just as much joy as my teammates.

Now every time I step on the field it’s a blessing. For the first time in my college career, I can just focus on being a football player. I can focus all my time on being ready to play on Saturday.  I’ve never watched this much film in my life, I just have so much time you just focus on my craft and what I want to do. When I step on the football field, that's my reward - it’s fun now, there’s no pressure. 

My dad would always tell me ‘If you feel like you’ve reached your low point, just know that you can only go up. Just keep working and focus on what you truly want to do. Don't let nothing stop you.’ That would be my advice. Work hard, put God first, and you can accomplish so many things.