GREENSBORO, NC – Five-star class of 2022 defensive tackle Travis Shaw was named the 2021 NCPreps.com North Carolina spring football season player of the year Monday morning, and afterward THI spoke with him about his season, honor, and recruitment, which includes UNC as one of his heavy suitors.
Shaw, who is 6-foot-6 and 325 pounds, is now the No. 3 overall prospect nationally in his class, as Rivals’ new rankings started coming out Monday afternoon, and he is No. 1 at his position. Shaw attends Grimsley High School in Greensboro.
Among the many schools that have offered Shaw are essentially the top programs in the nation, including Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, and Georgia, but he has also been extended by Southern Cal, Penn State, Oklahoma, LSU, and so many others.
Last fall, he released a top 13 of Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, North Carolina A&T, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, and UNC.
Above is the full video interview with Shaw and below is a full transcript of what he had to say:
THI: You got a little bit of hardware, just named the Player of the Year (by NCPreps.com) for the spring season. You guys won a state championship, how does that feel to have won one for the G?
SHAW: It feels great to win one for the G. Really, I feel it’s more great for the community and the environment that the G has. I feel the G has been overlooked for numerous amount of years, so I feel now the G is going to be a school that kids want to come to and schools that kids want to come watch. I really just think based on winning that, we’re going to turn the whole culture around, the whole Grimsley atmosphere and the whole Grimsley community.
THI: As far as recruiting goes, North Carolina is in your top 13 schools, and you made a decision to keep recruiting at bay during your season, but you went to UNC for the spring game. I know the weather wasn’t good, but how was that?
SHAW: Just being in a different football environment, any time you’re around football, as a football player, you’re just happy. At the spring game, it was another cool environment with some of the other recruits around the area, some of my teammates. Just going to watch somebody else play football, if you’re a real football player, you’ll like it anyway. Just being there in a college atmosphere and being on a campus where people know you’re name and you don’t even go to school there is always amazing. I feel like that was one more opportunity to get one step closer to my dreams.
THI: You’ve said before the whole staff at UNC is recruiting you, what does that feel like to have them, even Coach (Phil) Longo, the offensive coordinator, and Lonnie Galloway, the wide receivers coach, along with the defensive guys, how does that make you feel personally to have the whole staff recruiting you as their number one guy?
SHAW: It’s really hard to say because a lot of other schools do the same thing. But Carolina is in your backyard, the home school, so it’s real special, especially with some of the other names that came out of North Carolina. With all of the attention from colleges, every college coach knows your name, your number to text you, so it’s just really cool just being that guy.
THI: You’re rehabbing an injury that happened in the state championship game. You want to tell people how you’re doing?
SHAW: I’m doing fine – you’re always doing fine when you’re a state champ. I got a little injury in the state championship game in my shoulder, so right now just taking it slow, still enjoying the state championship, gonna get back on top of this recruitment, and be back for (my) senior season.
THI: With June first, I call it the ‘zoo opened up’ and everybody went crazy, what are your plans about visiting UNC in the next few weeks? Have you scheduled anything or are you just going to pop in down there?
SHAW: I may have to do a little pop-in down there (laughing). My visit actually starts this week, so UNC fans will see me down there this week, Clemson will see me on the weekend, and then Georgia will see me sometime next week. Those are the three I’ve got right now.
THI: You’re going to be an early enrollee, so do you have a timeline for making a decision? I know you get asked that a lot, but can we see this recruitment going until late December possibly, or do you want to get it over with?
SHAW: With this process, this process is more than a one-step thing, this process is a journey. So, at the end of the day, every athlete, every parent don’t want to see their child make the wrong decision, so if I can hold it as long as I can to make the best decision possible for me and my family, it’s just a chess game where you move and piece and then move a piece. You just take it a slow as possible and slow going as you can. With recruiting you never know, you might go on a visit tomorrow and you might just get happy and want the recruitment over like some of these other athletes are doing. You never know.
