If you need a favor from Shurman Riggins, please don’t ask him during the first part of his weekend.
He’s re-energizing.“I just leave Sunday for my homework day on the weekends and enjoy myself with my friends on Friday and Saturday,” Riggins said. “You can’t always work. You just gotta get away from it sometimes.”
And Riggins has a heck of a lot to get away from—all good—when it comes to academics and athletics. His well-channeled energy has made Riggins this year’s Lawrence High School selection for the Delaware Valley Chapter of the National Football Foundation’s Scholar-Athlete Award.
Riggins will be honored along with players from 25 other area high schools at a dinner on Sunday, March 10 at the Princeton Hyatt.
The Wagner University-bound senior brings an impressive resume to the dinner in both athletics and academics. He is a leader in the school community, and feels that’s part of his responsibility as a varsity football player.
“It’s a big weight on my shoulders, especially this year since I was team captain,” Riggins said. “As captain, I needed to set the example for the guys on my team as well as the rest of the school.
“If I were to goof off in school, then the guys would think it’s OK to goof off, which is not what I want to happen. I want to be able to do everything right in and out of the classroom to give kids who may not have a good role model something to follow.”
He is certainly a guy worth falling in step with. Challenging himself with honors and advanced placement classes, Riggins has a 3.75 GPA while focusing on business and international studies.
Extra-curricular activities include participation in the four-day NFL Wharton Prep Leadership Program, serving as president of the LHS chapter of Distributive Education Clubs of America and participating in the Lindsay Meyer Teen Institute. Shurman placed first in DECA’s State Career Development Conference and placed in the top 12 in the world at the International Career Development Conference.
He has won the Presidential Education Award and is a two-time Student-of-the-Month winner.
With all that, Riggins still found time to be a three-year letter winner in football and track and field. He was the Cardinals’ varsity football Rookie of the Year as a sophomore and won the team’s Defensive Most Valuable Player as a linebacker this past season.
Riggins will continue playing football at Wagner, which is located on Staten Island.
“I’m going to major in business administration with a concentration in marketing,” he said. “With Wagner being in New York City, I hope to get a good job in the city for a company in their marketing department.”
Just to make sure there was nothing else out there that might interest him, Riggins works for a bank as a teller at a local branch and a branch within LHS.
“I figured I would give banking a try because you never know where you will find what you want to do with the rest of your life,” he said. “Working there is interesting. Every time I work it’s a little different.
“Dealing with people’s money is pretty fun. It’s never boring, and it’s a responsibility. Plus it’s helped my quick math skills a lot.”
If his marketing career pans out as he hopes, he will need those skills to count all his money. Riggins received some valuable experience for his professional career when he was selected to the four-day Wharton leadership program. He was one of just 36 selected out of hundreds of applicants.
“It was such a great experience,” he said. “During my stay, we paid for nothing except to go bowling. I also met some amazing people who cared about their schoolwork and athletics as much as I do.
“During the stay we were all completely spoiled. The first night we ate at the Rittenhouse Hotel, the next night we ate on campus, and on the last night we ate at the Sheraton Hotel… all for free!”
Don’t be misled. Riggins did more than just eat and throw strikes and spares.
“We heard speeches and learned from Wharton professors Jeff Klein, Katherine Klein and Keith Weigelt,” he said. “We heard from a vocal awareness expert Arthur Joseph, Gatorade Sports Science expert John Eric Smith, the basketball coach about setting goals and Andrew Brandt, an ESPN analyst.
“From all of this I came out a better leader and person overall who was ready to work even harder to get what I wanted in life.”
When he’s not preparing for his future, Riggins is taking time to help others, as he has served as a volunteer for Special Olympics Unified Basketball and at the Lawrence Township Fraternal Order of Police. He has also been a teacher assistant and a THREADS mentor at LHS.
Shurman got great satisfaction from the Special Olympics program, in which he has also been a counselor at Camp Shriver.
“I started by volunteering to play unified basketball with the athletes who have special needs,” he said. “Unified basketball alone has showed me how much of an impact simple gestures can have on a person’s life. Volunteering with Special Olympics has developed my patience which is huge in the business world.
“All of the athletes really taught me to slow down and enjoy the little things in life, not always try and move to the big picture. I also worked as a junior camp counselor this past summer and it was such an enjoyable experience. I plan to go back this summer as a senior counselor.”
It’s hard to believe Riggins’ life is only just beginning, considering everything he has jammed into it so far.
In looking back at high school, Riggins lists his proudest moment on the football field as coming back from a high ankle injury in time to make the season opener last fall when he wasn’t supposed to be ready.
“I was able to lead my team by showing them if you work at something you can achieve your goal no matter what,” he said.
His pivotal moment in the classroom was “definitely when I discovered my love for business in Ms. (Denise) Schneck’s entrepreneurship class.”
In the middle of everything else he does, Riggins also enjoys cooking when he gets the chance.
“I’m pretty good,” he said. “I really love to make a good burger and fries, some pancakes, or a bacon egg and cheese. Those are all definitely my favorites.
“I must admit my mom does cook most of my food.”
That’s not all his mom, along with his dad, have done for their son.
“My parents are definitely the ones who inspired my work ethic and always pushed me to do my best at everything I was involved in,” he said. “They wouldn’t let me quit on anything I thought was hard; or if I just wanted more free time. They taught me that I needed to learn how to budget my time effectively to be successful in life.”
Judging by what he has accomplished so far, Riggins has learned his lessons well.
To purchase tickets to the March 10 Delaware Valley Chapter of the National Football Foundation dinner, contact Ron Hoehn at (609) 587-0806 or rhoehn@optonline.net.
