Class of 2015 OLB Shyheim (Shy) Cullen (MA) Signed LOI

[Bambrewer]

Might not be able to compete with bikinis, but at least Mom and Dad can watch Shy play in person multiple times a yr

That is a major bonus

 

[wfschrec]

maybe they could put somthing together... kiddie pool with a couple girls

Green Lakes is only 30 mins away and has a nice little beach ... plus Oneida Lake down by Sylvan is a nice stop to hit and only 40 mins out ... I wouldn't worry about your options

 

[phil77]

Well the head of recruiting for Miami and Shy had been emailing and messaging for a while and had asked us to come to camp. Shy was getting very close to committing to Syracuse and his mother and I were worried he would do so without looking at other options. So Shy and I flew in for the camp yesterday. We started off waiting at the top of this set of stairs going into the registration area. Shy had on one of his superman under armour shirts (i know your all shocked). It is somthing I really cant get used to but everytime we go to these "supposed to be" capitols of football... people stare at Shy. Maybe because I see him everyday and just am used to the size of him but it cracks me up they all do the same thing they see him and the kinda look down as if to say OMG ...I wasnt looking at you. Its kinda funny. So we register and get jerseys. They weighed Shy in and got height...they have him at 210lbs and 5 11...starting to have no faith in scales and rulers lol. The 210 is acurate his meds he started taking has changed his appetite... we had the doctor change his meds last week...cant have his appetite going down. The height well 5 11... 6 feet its close enough. So they send the kids out on to the field and they warm up in large groups. Then they line them up and have them run the 40...they didnt give us the time but I videoed it using a timed app and I have it some where around 4.67. Still not his best but either way its fine. So then they break them into groups by offensive position. Shy goes with running backs. I move around the field to watch from as close as I can and kinda stand back behind everyone. I like to hear what the parents are talking about so I can decide what conversations I want to be apart of. This time there is a group of 3 people there talking about Shy... which happens to be one of my favorite football topics so I kinda move over and listen to them. They were saying he must be a college student. So I said no he is 16. So they look at me kinda funny and one guy said oh are you his coach? I said no his dad...which again gets a lot of strange looks. So we watch the drills and Shy is killing it. He is moving good, fast and looking great. The coaches working with him are excited yelling watch how he is doing it to the other kids. One of the parents says he looks great and I said good cause this isnt his primary position wait till the defense drills come up. So the go thru and are about to finish up offense and they are doing this drill where the have to run forward run in a circle around a cone run forward run around in a circle run forward. Shy did the first one great the second one I see him kinda pull up on the run in a circle part. Its like 92 degrees as humid as any day I have ever seen and Im thinking crap he is gonna pass out. But they finished up the offense and sent them for drinks and Shy looked great the rest of day. They switch to defense and the head recruiter is the linbacker coach so he is going to be running the drills with Shy. He pulls shy aside for a minute to talk to him then they get right to work. Well about this time these 4 guys show up dressed in the same outfitts and I can hear them introduce them to kids as the starting running backs and linebackers. He introduces one of them as their starting middle linebacker a senior. Shy is a good 2 inches taller than this kid and is in the same shape though maybe about 10lbs lighter and Im thinking to myself geez I thought these kids would be huge. I have no doubt shy has the size to start as a freshman. He is almost the size of the starters and is 4 years younger. The players all kinda stood near Shy and talked with him asking him what he had for offers and were stunned he only had 1. They all said they would love to have him play with them. Shy did great on the drills and they started having him work against the current hurricanes to demonstrate to the other kids how to do drills...He did great. Then the coach pulled him out of the drills and took him to the other corner of the field and worked with him one on one. He did well but was having trouble with one drill but after working with the coach made a good change. Later the coach told me he was having trouble with the drill and felt it was because he was confusing a running backs approach with the line backer approach and when he got into a set single position it wouldnt be a factor. next came a very welcome down pour that cooled things off just in time to eat lunch. after lunch it was back to skill work. he did great in both offense and defense. This time he had some coaches from FIU. They loved Shy...I wouldnt be surprised if Shy hears from them soon. A couple hours of skill work and they broke into one on ones. First time that Shy gets up in coverage this speedy little tight end smokes him. Im standing there like what the hell just happened? Shy comes running back and the coach says why didnt you bump him? And Shy says its no contact I didnt think we could. The coach says of course you can...well that was it for getting beat. He knocked evey kid they put him against on their ass right at the line. When they got up he undercut every route and knocked down every pass. Then came the end of camp so they lined them all up and had them run 50 yards. they broke them into 3 groups by position...after 6 hours of camp Shy out ran all the backers and secondary he was with. Then came the final speech and I kinda walked over behind the recruiter coach Barrows and had my glasses and a hat on so he didnt know I was standing there. I heard him say grab that kid Shy and his dad I want to meet with him. Then he grabbed some one else and said find Shy I need to meet with him in the office. So I walked over and took off my glasses and he saw me He said you want to take a campus tour? We said yeah and took a tour with a player. Very nice campus. Then we went back to the main office and met with coach Barrows and he gave us a tour of the facilities all new and very nice. He sat and talked with us for a while and said he was aware Shy would probably commit to syracuse and had nothing but goood things to say about the Syracuse school and program. We had to catch a flight out in a about an hour and a half so he walked us out to the car and said he would be in touch and thanked us for coming down. Over all it was a good camp getting different coaching is always a good thing. Shy did well...Im not sure if he will get an offer out of it but we can work on the things the coach gave us constructive criticism of and be a stronger player in the end.

Thank you for taking the time to write this up. Very interesting read.

 

[Trueblue25]

Green Lakes is only 30 mins away and has a nice little beach ... plus Oneida Lake down by Sylvan is a nice stop to hit and only 40 mins out ... I wouldn't worry about your options

Oh yeah, the babes at Sylvan beach...yeah...


But on a real note.

Shy's hardnosed, passes my looks test. Hope we get him onboard. LGO.

 

[ImperialOrange]

So I said no he is 16. So they look at me kinda funny and one guy said oh are you his coach? I said no his dad...which again gets a lot of strange looks.

HA! I get those same looks all the time with my oldest and presume it may be the same reason. At his U-15 soccer game this past weekend "so which one is your son?" me "Christian, number 95". They look out and see him, then me, then him again and are perplexed by the fact that we don't exactly look the same.

 

[orangefog]

The beach is great, so beautiful. And the women there, I imagine are second to none. But, I would imagine his goals are a degree and making it to the NFL, in some particular order. He can go to the beach all he wants after he achieves one or both of his goals. I can't even imagine how distracting the beach is for a kid, especially so far from home.

 

[Bambrewer]

Yes he has my build but the hair color throws people off

 

[Bambrewer]

That's shy on the far right he was 12 in this picture

 

[Trueblue25]

The beach is great, so beautiful. And the women there, I imagine are second to none. But, I would imagine his goals are a degree and making it to the NFL, in some particular order. He can go to the beach all he wants after he achieves one or both of his goals. I can't even imagine how distracting the beach is for a kid, especially so far from home.

South beach... so fun

:x

 

[Bambrewer]

The beach is great, so beautiful. And the women there, I imagine are second to none. But, I would imagine his goals are a degree and making it to the NFL, in some particular order. He can go to the beach all he wants after he achieves one or both of his goals. I can't even imagine how distracting the beach is for a kid, especially so far from home.

That's what he said. He also picked out his yacht Ferrari and summer home... Kids got goals

 

[ImperialOrange]

Yes he has my build but the hair color throws people off

HA! Same exact thing. The hair color gets em everytime.

 

[orangefog]

That's what he said. He also picked out his yacht Ferrari and summer home... Kids got goals

Good for him, stay driven. My ten year old daughter is going to the Olympics for gymnastics and figure skating, according to her. The gymnastics part, she is doing well, but stiff competition. The figure skating part, she has skated once, but she is convinced she can do it.

 

[Trueblue25]

I'm 21 and still waiting for the Boston Red Sox to call and ask for me to come to bat.

 

[orangefog]

I'm 21 and still waiting for the Boston Red Sox to call and ask for me to come to bat.

Do you have a beard?

 

[Trueblue25]

Do you have a beard?

Unfortunately my beard is more Paul Pierce than Mike Napoli

 

[Bambrewer]

Oops forget the new one isn't in that picture... He looks like more of a syracuse lineman to me though

 

[ImperialOrange]

Good for him, stay driven. My ten year old daughter is going to the Olympics for gymnastics and figure skating, according to her. The gymnastics part, she is doing well, but stiff competition. The figure skating part, she has skated once, but she is convinced she can do it.

Wild thing is how early kids decide on what they want to specialize in now. When I was 13 I played every sport I could. My 13 year old is pretty decided that this is going to be his last year of soccer so he can focus solely on track and cross country next season. It's his choice of course, but pretty bizarre to me.

 

[Bambrewer]

Wild thing is how early kids decide on what they want to specialize in now. When I was 13 I played every sport I could. My 13 year old is pretty decided that this is going to be his last year of soccer so he can focus solely on track and cross country next season. It's his choice of course, but pretty bizarre to me.

My 14 yearold has played football since he was 7 he is heading into high school this year and comes to me and says I'm going to play football in high school and hockey... I said hockey you can't skate. He says I will learn. I said hockey players have been playing 12 years by the time they are 14. He said if I can make the team can I play? I said sure... That was in November... Little turd made the team.

 

[orangefog]

Wild thing is how early kids decide on what they want to specialize in now. When I was 13 I played every sport I could. My 13 year old is pretty decided that this is going to be his last year of soccer so he can focus solely on track and cross country next season. It's his choice of course, but pretty bizarre to me.

I was talking to someone else in my office about that today. My daughter is 10 years old and her summer schedule for gymnastics is Monday thru Friday. 6 hours on Monday, and then about 4 hours the rest of the days. She has never played another sport, because by the age of 5, she was competing and gymnastics comes before everything else. We have asked her if she wanted to play another sport, and she would, so long as it didn't interfere with gymnastics. I loved sports at her age, I still do. And like you, I played everything. But, kids seem devoted to their sports now.

 

[CaliCuse]

Wild thing is how early kids decide on what they want to specialize in now. When I was 13 I played every sport I could. My 13 year old is pretty decided that this is going to be his last year of soccer so he can focus solely on track and cross country next season. It's his choice of course, but pretty bizarre to me.

Not bizarre at all. He in his mind has identified the sport he could improve far more and wants to concentrate on that goal. Its very intuitive IMO.Support him in every way possible.

 

[ImperialOrange]

My 14 yearold has played football since he was 7 he is heading into high school this year and comes to me and says I'm going to play football in high school and hockey... I said hockey you can't skate. He says I will learn. I said hockey players have been playing 12 years by the time they are 14. He said if I can make the team can I play? I said sure... That was in November... Little turd made the team.

I wanted to play hockey but that equipment cost more than I wanted to ask from my father who was working 60-70 hrs a week so we could get by at the time.

 

[ImperialOrange]

I was talking to someone else in my office about that today. My daughter is 10 years old and her summer schedule for gymnastics is Monday thru Friday. 6 hours on Monday, and then about 4 hours the rest of the days. She has never played another sport, because by the age of 5, she was competing and gymnastics comes before everything else. We have asked her if she wanted to play another sport, and she would, so long as it didn't interfere with gymnastics. I loved sports at her age, I still do. And like you, I played everything. But, kids seem devoted to their sports now.

His track coaches got on my bad side a little bit because they gave him a hard time about playing soccer as well. If they have that opinion that's fine but don't impose and try and manipulate my son with it. We'll have problems and he won't be running for them at all if that's how they want to play it.

Funny thing is his sprint coach, who thinks soccer is an injury risk for knees/ankles, played football. I pointed that out to my son.

 

[Bambrewer]

So just a little thing I found interesting in the last few days I have been on this and a Miami board. Its getting to be a full time job. But i find it interesting in what the people hear think of some recruits particularly the recruits coming from Florida and Jersey vs what Miami fans think of the Florida prospects and Jersey prospects. I wonder how much is rating boards and hype vs actual knowledge of the kids. Its funny there are very few kids that both sites think are quality recruits

 

[wfschrec]

So just a little thing I found interesting in the last few days I have been on this and a Miami board. Its getting to be a full time job. But i find it interesting in what the people hear think of some recruits particularly the recruits coming from Florida and Jersey vs what Miami fans think of the Florida prospects and Jersey prospects. I wonder how much is rating boards and hype vs actual knowledge of the kids. Its funny there are very few kids that both sites think are quality recruits

I think its mainly based on history ... plus the sheer numbers of Florida kids that go D1 ... other than Cali, Texas and GA no one does it like Florida. What types of feedback are you seeing? Are some of our recruits in the discussion on the Miami board?

 

[Bambrewer]

The biggest one the sites have in common was Davis. It was funny they never even acknowledged the commit to Syracuse. Probably cause the kid hid it so much. They did say they felt he may come there because its close to home but alot felt the fact that they waited to offer would hurt them. The O line that has recently commited to Syracuse isnt even mentioned there...or at least I cant find. There is a few Jersey kids they are hyped for that I cant find here either