WALKING ON AIR

Ryan Shannon hadn’t even touched a football at his first practice at Duke and already he was fumbling.

“How exactly do these shoulder pads strap on?” he wondered. “And the hip pads, I guess they must slip into these pockets in this girdle.”

Teammates sitting near him in the locker room shook their heads. Who is this guy who doesn’t even know how to get dressed?

They soon found out. Shannon proved determined and athletic. Adventurous, too.

Anybody who walks on to a Division I football team as a freshman despite never having played a single down in his life must be a thrill-seeker, although his intelligence could be questioned.

But Shannon scored 1,530 on the SAT and graduated in the top 10 in the Agoura High class of 1997. He is a pre-med student at Duke.

What in the Blue Devils possessed a bright kid whose athletic experience was limited to basketball and track to give football a go?

It started with a letter.

“It was a form letter sent to all incoming students urging us to support the football team,” Shannon said. “The last sentence said that if you are interested in walking on the team, we’d love for you to try. I looked at that and did a double-take.

“I thought about it all week and didn’t say anything to anybody. Then I mentioned to my parents and they were supportive.”

Pastoral and distinguished, Duke soon became the school of hard knocks for Shannon.

Once he managed to get the pads on, doubts creeped in. “It sure is humid,” he thought. “And this helmet is as heavy as my friends said it would be.

“Geez, I’m 3,000 miles from home, don’t know anybody and I’m trying a sport I’ve never played. What am I doing?”

Picking himself off the ground after getting leveled by a linebacker, for starters. The first day in pads he lined up at wide receiver, ran a slant pattern against the first-team defense, caught a pass, got drilled, dropped the ball.

“That was the first time I’d ever been hit,” Shannon recalled with an odd sense of pride.

As the days wore on, Shannon’s feeling of accomplishment grew. He began making outstanding catches. At 6 feet 2, 205 pounds with decent speed, he was able to withstand the punishment, even surviving practice duty as a wedge-breaker on the kickoff team.

“It’s kind of amazing,” said Ken Matous, the Duke receivers coach. “Ryan picked up things faster than we thought he would. Obviously he’s a very smart kid. The big thing is he has athletic ability, and he isn’t shy about doing anything you ask him to do.”

After practice, which often did not end until 7 p.m., Shannon retreated to his room to study, often until the wee hours of the morning.

“One week I had three mid-terms plus practice,” he said. “I was getting three hours of sleep.”

The payoff didn’t come in playing time--Shannon dressed for home games but never left the sidelines. However, the feeling of belonging on a Duke team that snapped a 21-game losing streak by defeating Army, 20-17, in the third game of the season was priceless.

“The fans tore down the goal posts,” Shannon said. “It was a great day.”

Duke also defeated Navy and finished 2-9, an improvement on the previous season’s 0-11 mark.

“I really think we can turn the corner,” Shannon said.

He’ll remain part of the effort. Shannon is preparing diligently for training camp.

Several times a week he catches passes thrown by Ryan McCann, a former Agoura quarterback who will be a UCLA freshman. Shannon also works out with Jeff Barnhart, an athletic trainer and speed coach, and serves as a receiver for passers under the tutelage of quarterback coach Steve Clarkson.

“I’ve definitely gotten a lot better,” Shannon said. “And I’m definitely going to play for four years. Now I love football. It’s one of best things I’ve ever done.”

Matous wrote Shannon an encouraging letter after spring practice, letting him know his work could eventually result in playing time.

“We don’t get a lot of walk-ons because of the high tuition at Duke,” Matous said. “He’s the first one I’ve been around who never played high school football, came out here and made it. I’ve never heard of this. He will be a good asset to the program.

“Once you’ve been around the kid, you know he will be successful in life. He wants to accomplish things.”

Shannon believes his greatest improvement is his hands. He’s come a long way from the first pass McCann threw him last summer: It slipped straight through his hands and thumped him in the chest like an arrow to the heart.

Eventually Shannon wants to become a surgeon. The sure hands he’s developing will be put to good use.

“I like the adrenaline of competing, and with a surgeon, there’s that same sort of pressure,” he said. “Everything I’m doing in football and in school is pointing me in that direction.”