Shane McGregor: quarterback, prayer warrior and author

Video posted December 10, 2012 in Sports, Best of CommMedia by Melanie DiCarlo Updated: May 21, 2013

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Shane McGregor, a senior majoring in Journalism and English and soon-to-be alum, is the third string quarterback for the Penn State Nittany Lions Football team. He is easily recognized by his long, flowing golden locks and his persistent proclamation of faith in Jesus Christ.

When I asked Shane where he wanted to do the interview, I suggested the Lasch building, where he spends most of his time doing football things, or the chapel, where he goes to pray, but he insisted that I conduct it in his apartment. I’ve known Shane for three years. I’d like to say that I know a lot about him, his dreams, his fears, what motivates him, but he continues to surprise me.

His apartment is much like any other college apartment. It’s not too tiny, just cozy enough to fit Shane and three roommates comfortably. There’s a man cave to the left of the entryway, complete with a larger-than-necessary television, probably HD or plasma or LED or something similar that has a strong appeal to men. In front of it are three or four couches – none of them matching - crammed into the space flawlessly. I assume their purpose is to house a surplus of football fans on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays for the big games.

I turn the corner and climb the stairs just to the right of the front door. Along the wall that lines the top seven stairs or so are hand drawn letters. Each letter is markered on a sheet of notebook paper and strategically placed in a diagonal line following the shape of the stairs, and together they read CARPE DIEM. Seize the day. Ahead is the bathroom, and to the left of that a sink, which was surprisingly cleaner than I would’ve imagined any college-aged boy’s sink to be. Across the hall are two doors side-by-side. Shane’s room is to the left. The first thing I see when I walk in is a bookshelf cornered in the doorway.

Feng shui

Each of the four shelves is filled, overflowing with books upon books. Gazing around the room counter-clockwise, every wall, even the ceiling, is filled with posters, note cards, quotes and memorabilia, each different, yet significant to Shane. I mentioned something about the few inches of uncovered wall space in the corner of the room and he says he’s been meaning to cover it up, but he can’t find any purple posters. Purple, Shane? Why purple? He pulled out a sheet of paper explaining the logistics of the ancient Chinese art and science of feng shui. According to About.com, by definition it is a complex system of knowledge that reveals how to balance the various energies of any room to assure health and wealth to the person or people living in that space. The room is sectioned off with certain colors based on the Chi, or the idea that the space is alive and filled with energy. For instance, when first entering his room there is a giant poster from The Dark Knight Rises. It’s black. It’s in the black corner of the room. Next to that is the pink section. And it goes around the entire room with different colors in each corner ending with the ceiling being yellow.

I like this idea of feng shui. It’s a form of organization. Not only is Shane’s room organized into a particular array of colors and energies, but his life, which is just as colorful, is organized almost down to the minute. One of the first things I asked him was “What’s a typical day like?” And Shane being the jokester that he is responded, “Well, it’s 24 hours long, and…no, I’m just kidding.” He then proceeded to tell me about his actual day: “Wake up. Sometimes I have a lift or a workout. And then class, I’m taking British Literature now. And then I try to stop by the HUB and say hello to some people, do homework, or write for myself after that. Practice usually starts at 2:45, and I probably don’t get out of there til 7:30 most days. And then I usually have something to do, whether it’s go to a prayer group after that or go to one of my other organization’s meetings, or just finish some work I have. And then try to end the day with some prayer and go to bed and get ready to do it all over again.” Organized. It’s almost a science.

Football

On a note card plastered in his room, Shane wrote a quote from one of his favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption: “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” Hope is undoubtedly something he has had throughout his five seasons as a Nittany Lion quarterback: “If you have hope, then you believe that no matter what happens, something good will come from it as long as you just keep moving on. You can either wallow in your own pity and your own doubt or you can press on and believe good things are to come and work for it.”

Work for it, he has. Fellow teammate Stephon Morris, a defensive back, called Shane "one of the hardest workers on the team”. He stays on the field after each practice is over and throws 100 or so extra passes. To Shane, football is an obstacle. “Football is a game of challenges,” he said. “It’s a struggle. It makes you uncomfortable and therefore makes you grow and change and become a better person and a better player. It takes passion, it takes hard work, dedication, love and faith and all those good things. It’s basically like a microcosm of life, except it’s a game. And you get to do it with a lot of great people too.”

I asked him what attracts him to football and he related football to life. With both, you get out of it what you put in. He mentioned the idea of relentless effort. Relentless effort means you have no ceiling, only unlimited potential. “You’re only so tall, or you’re only so fast, or your body’s only built in certain ways,” he said. “But if you have that effort to improve and that passion, that willingness to drive yourself to improve, you can go as far as you want to.” 

Many know Shane as the kid with the beautiful blonde tresses that waterfall out of his helmet on game days. He’s even taken on the nickname Sunshine. Similar to the Remember the Titans character, quarterback Ronnie Bass? Maybe. He can most definitely relate to the role of the quarterback, however.

Shane called playing quarterback “almost a sub-sport in itself”. “Football is a lot of large men colliding at violent speeds, and here I am dropping back and I’m supposed to be calm and I’m supposed to not look at them and I’m supposed to throw a ball. I’m the only one that throws the ball on the team. I’m the only one that drops back to pass. So by nature it’s a different position.” Though he may not be starting quarterback, Shane has an important role on the field.

One of Coach Bill O’Brien’s mottos is do your job. Every player has a unique role on the team. Shane relates O’Brien’s belief to a quote from Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: “Bloom where you are planted.” So if that means running the scout team offense each week to prepare for the upcoming game, or if that means writing plays on a blackboard on the sidelines of each game, he will do it to the best of his ability. After all, one of his favorite Bible verses from Romans confirms this idea of blooming where you are planted: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Shane told me they don’t just say the good things work for those who love God, but everything. That means the successes, the failures, the lessons learned – all of it works for the good. With a smile and a nod, he says, “So the big picture: everything is working through faith.”

Faith

Dinosaur figurines and Cheerios – that’s where his faith began. His mom took him to daily mass, and though he didn’t understand it at first, he eventually would. “As I grew older, it fused into my own passion. The seeds were planted early and definitely watered by my mom and dad. Then it became something I really care about and really believe in, so it’s only natural that it continued when I got [to Penn State].”

ShaneprayingShane says the reason he came to Penn State is all because of faith. “This right here, where I’m at, if you told me five years ago that, ‘Oh yeah, you’ll be playing for Penn State University as a quarterback for a five-year career,’ I would’ve said, ‘Oh yeah, that’s good. I really wish that would happen, but that’s not the way that it’s gonna happen. That can’t be. That’s impossible.’ But, as you know, nothing is impossible with God.” He believes God gave him the gift and talent of football and the ability to play at Penn State; therefore it’s his gift back to God to use those to do His will. “Your gifts back to God are what you do with those. I might not be on my knees praying, but in a sense I’d say throwing footballs and writing papers and just being a good friend, that’s all a form of prayer, ‘cause you’re doing it for God.”

“I believe in prayer,” Shane told me. He founded a rosary group at Penn State two years ago. The rosary, meaning “Crown of Roses”, is a set of Catholic prayers devoted to Mary. It is a circle of 5 decades. Each decade consists of the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary ten times, one Glory Be to the Father, and then ends with the Fatima prayer. The rosary is a beautiful set of prayers strung together dedicated to both Mary and to her son Jesus through her intercession. “I really have a devotion to the rosary,” Shane said. “A few of us got the idea to start a group to start praying the rosary. For the last two years, we’ve prayed every Thursday night at a certain time, and then this year we’ve started praying it almost every night, so it’s something that’s important to me.”

When it comes to football, his faith is his rock and his peace. “I always listen to some praise music when I’m going over on the bus because it really calms me down. It keeps me at peace, and so while everyone else is getting pumped up and ready to go, I like to just be at peace because that’s when my mind works best. And when my mind is working best, that’s when I play the best.” Before and after every game, no matter the commotion swirling around on the field, he takes a knee in the end zone. Some may call it Tebowing, but Shane did it before it was considered a thing. McGregoring, perhaps? It’s not a matter of whether it’s cool or not, professing his faith and praising God for all of the blessings and talents is important to him. One of the prayers he recites before each game is, “Lord, let everything I do on the field be for Your will. Let me do everything for You. Thank you for all the blessings You gave me. Thank you for all the successes I’ve enjoyed, all the failures I’ve endured, and all the lessons I’ve learned.”

His ultimate goal doesn’t come as a surprise: it is to make it to Heaven. And included in that goal is helping everyone else get there. Through his words, his actions and just living his life, his aim is to spread the Gospel message. “It’s the reason you’re here. My relationship with God is extremely important. If it wasn’t for Him, I wouldn’t have the game of football. I wouldn’t have the ability to challenge myself and to have the passion that I have for it. That’s why I go out and I try to do everything I can for Him.”

Written

When his faith and passion for journalism fused together, Shane received one of the greatest answers to his prayers. It was the beginning of the 2011 football season. Shane had this idea in his mind about a season of faith’s perfection. This term comes from his favorite movie Finding Forrester. In the movie, it was the title of an article written by the main character, but it means something more to Shane than just that. It meant a trip to the National Championship game in New Orleans on January 9, 2012. On a notecard he wrote:

KEEP THE FAITH.

January 9, 2012

He was determined to get there, and he had the faith that it would happen. At first he thought his team might be able to go undefeated and play in the Championship game, but as the season went on that wasn’t the way events transpired. He didn’t expect what happened next.

Malcom Moran, the director of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism and Shane’s professor, called him into his office and gave him the opportunity to travel with him to New Orleans in January to cover the National Championship game for the College of Communications. It may not have been how he imagined, but his dream came true.

Days before the game, Shane was in Dallas for the Ticket City Bowl being interviewed. When he got to New Orleans, his role switched and he was the one doing the interviewing. “I get to see both kinds of things. It gives you a better understanding of how the whole process works, and it’s just invaluable experience for whatever I choose to do in life,” he said.

Next to being a journalist, he is in the process of writing a book. “It’s called The Second Coming. I’ve had the title and the main plot for about…probably since I was 12. It’s grown and matured since then, but it’s the retelling of the story of Jesus except it is in modern times, and he plays basketball.” He uses symbolism and parallels found in the Bible in his own story, which creates an intriguing plot. He has dreams of publishing the book and eventually turning it into a movie.

The ability to tell stories is why Shane writes. “I like writing, but I think the core of it is that I like storytelling. Stories are what move people the most. You could throw data and statistics at them but what speaks to people are stories. Everyone can relate to that, because everyone has one. Whatever I do, I wanna be a professional storyteller. Whether that’s writing a feature article for a magazine, or writing a novel, or producing or directing a movie, whatever, that’s what I wanna do, because that’s what can ultimately change the world.” Change the world. Shane’s story may just change the world.

 

(Additional video courtesy of WPSU)