He caught Christian McCaffrey’s eye. Now Weddington’s Will Shipley wants repeat title
A few weeks ago, Weddington High running back Will Shipley, the new N.C. Gatorade Player of the Year, was riding to the DMV in Union County with his mother. His phone buzzed.
Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey was sending a direct message via Instagram.
“I see you from over here, man,” McCaffrey wrote, “and keep working. Keep doing your thing and good luck the rest of the season.”
Shipley, whose team will play for a repeat state championship Saturday, was stunned to hear from arguably the best running back in the world.
“It was surreal,” Shipley said. “I just sat there and my mom was like, ‘Are you all right.’ And I was like, ‘No. Please tell me I’m seeing things.’ (McCaffrey) is obviously someone I try to model my game after, and to know he’s watching me and to know he sees what I’m doing over here means a lot.”
In the NFL, McCaffrey’s versatility makes him hard to stop. It’s the same for Shipley in high school.
247 Sports ranks Shipley, a 17-year-old junior, as a five-star national recruit, the highest ranking possible, and the No. 1 all-purpose running back in the nation. He ranks as the No. 44 prospect overall (McCaffrey was a four-star recruit in high school who ranked No. 91 overall. He was the No. 2 all-purpose back nationally).
And, for a high school prospect, Shipley has versatility similar to his football idol. For example, he has thrown eight passes in his high school career.
Five were for touchdowns.
This season, Shipley has run 162 times for 1,810 yards and 27 touchdowns. He’s caught 33 passes for 575 yards and nine touchdowns.
He’s approaching 4,000 career rushing yards but is also nearing 1,500 career pass receiving yards. Like McCaffrey, he runs very precise routes, like a wide receiver, and has great hands. You’d expect an elite running back like Shipley to have 51 career rushing touchdowns. You might not expect him to have 83 career catches and 23 career receiving scores, too.
“I’ve never seen someone who works as hard as he does,” said Weddington coach Andy Capone, whose 15-0 unbeaten team will play Lee County (15-0) Saturday at N.C. State in the N.C. 3AA championship game. “He’s got great balance; and he’s really good at setting up blocks; and he can run inside the tackle or outside the tackle; and he can catch the ball out of the backfield. Put all that together and he’s hard to game plan for.”
Shipley has real sprinter’s speed. He holds the school’s indoor 55-meter record, which he set as a sophomore. And he’s always working to get better.
Shipley was 165 pounds when he came to Weddington. He’s 5-11 and 205 pounds now. He works out five days per week and eats at specific times of the day as recommended by his nutritionist. That includes at least 1,000 calories at lunch.
Thanks to that work ethic and natural ability, Shipley has college scholarship offers from some heavyweight programs, like Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State, but 247 Sports’ “Crystal Ball,” which predicts where elite prospects like Shipley will ultimately land, has him split 50-50 with N.C. State, where both of his parents went to school, and Notre Dame, where McCaffrey’s old running backs coach at Stanford, Lance Taylor, is now working.
Taylor was coaching wide receivers for the Panthers when McCaffrey was drafted in 2017.
Shipley said he’s got a list of about six to seven schools he’s considering right now. He said N.C. State is one of them, but won’t reveal the others until a week after Saturday’s state final.
“I get that question pretty often,” he said of potentially going to N.C. State and following his parents. “N.C. State is such a great place. I think a big part of it was waiting this offseason to see if any major coaching changes would happen, but seeing that it’s pretty stable there. ... I can take that, that school, that recruitment a little more seriously.”
Shipley plans to graduate early, in December 2020, and said he could announce his college choice as early as March. But before he leaves high school, he wants to accomplish a few more things.
“I’d love to win two more state championships,” he said, “including one this Saturday. A big goal for me was to reach 2,000 yards rushing (he needs 190 to get there). I think I can reach that if I do my thing in the state championship game.”
Observer-area teams in Saturday’s state finals
Class 4AA
Saturday’s state championship
(at Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill)
Vance (12-2) vs. Leesville Road (13-0), 3 p.m. (WCCB, Channel 18)
Class 3AA
Saturday’s state championship
(at Carter-Finley Stadium, Raleigh)
Weddington (15-0) vs. Lee County (15-0), 7 p.m. (WCCB, Channel 18)
Class 3A
Saturday’s state championship
(at Carter-Finley Stadium, Raleigh)
Charlotte Catholic (11-3) vs. Southern Nash (15-0), 3 p.m. (WCCB, Channel 18 subchannel)
Class 2AA
Saturday’s state championship
(at BB&T Field, Winston-Salem)
Shelby (13-1) vs. Salisbury (13-2), 11 a.m. (WCCB, Channel 18)
This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 5:40 PM.
