Highly touted freshman running back Sheldon Mayer came down the home stretch to graduation at his hometown high school of Norristown, PA looking for a quality division one school to recognize his immense talents and pick him up.

But not everything goes as planned.

By the time he graduated, Sheldon had talked to a number of schools, including a central Pennsylvanian DII football powerhouse called Shippensburg University, and the school his older brother played at: West Chester.

Mayer made a surprise pick and chose SU as his home for the next four years, a decision that he would come to wonder about early in his freshman year.

Just three games into his first season, a major knee injury sidelined the future star and put him up against the ropes. Mayer received a medical hardship waver and redshirted the rest of the year.
By 2014, his junior year, he has not only come back, he has sprinted past the competition and leads all Raider wide receivers this year. Not only that, five games into the season he leads all Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference wide receivers in yards, with 600, and yards per game with 109, 12 more than the next closest wide out.

He has even surpassed highly touted teammate and fellow wide-out Trevor Harman by 126 total yards and a touchdown. Harman is now SU’s all-time leader in receiving yards, receptions and scoring, eclipsing even a number of SU grads that are now NFL talents.

How does one overcome a setback like that to achieve such success?

“I had a lot of role models, especially back home, a lot of people that were in my corner.” Said Mayer. “Outside of my family too, like coaches, good friends, older players, just people in my corner that helped me keep my head straight.”

Sheldon has always been around sports, and it did not take long for him to get involved. He played in midget leagues all the way up until high school, when he started gaining recognition.

Mayer had a spectacular high school career as a tailback playing for the Norristown Eagles under Head Coach E.J. Smith. By the end of his years there he had earned All-Suburban One First Team honors, All-PA honorable mention and had success with his pastimes basketball and track & field. “I always loved sports and was always around sports.” Said Mayer. “High school helped me out by just taking that step from just playing backyard ball to actually trying to be the best player you can be. Just taking that next step, practicing hard, doing the things you’re not really good at so you have a complete skill set is an experience that really built me as a player.”

Sheldon recalls one of his favorite moments with the team, a 34-18 win in week nine of the 2013 season against PSAC rival Bloomsburg University. The game was broadcasted on national TV, and the matchup was at night under the lights, an aspect that Mayer appreciated from his high school years.

He ran for two touchdowns in the game with 244 receiving yards on only six catches (40.7 ypc), highlighted by a career-long 84-yarder, good for seventh all-time longest reception at SU.

In 2014 Mayer has seen his hard work pay off, posting PSAC and team leading stats.

“I attribute it to my hard work off the field,” said Mayer, referencing his standout 2014 season. “I blew out my knee freshman year, tore pretty much every ligament in my knee, so just knowing you can’t take anything for granted, and that at anything can happen, you can stop playing at any moment. Being able to deal with that (injury), to come back from that and still play at a high level, it’s just something that I push myself to try to do.”

Mayer has fit in well at Shippensburg, and enjoys the experiences he has had with his teammates and coaches.

Mayer hopes his outstanding 2014 season is merely a glimpse of what is to come. He still has a full senior year to improve on his performance and put in the hard work that it will take to continue his football career after he graduates.

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