Toucher & Rich: Merrimack's Shawn Loiseau On Upcoming Draft
BOSTON (CBS) - Shrewsbury's Shawn Loiseau has already proven a lot, but he would love to prove his doubters wrong come this week's NFL Draft.
Loiseau has always dreamed of playing professional ball. After leading Shrewsbury High to a 13-0 record and a Super Bowl his senior year, on his way to being named Massachusetts Player of the Year, there were high hopes that Division 1 teams would be knocking down the linebacker's door.
That was not the case.
"Throughout the scouting process I had always wanted to play at the highest level and dreamed of playing Division 1 football. I got overlooked, I think," Loiseau told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich Tuesday morning. "A lot of coaches didn't think I had what it took to play at a Division 1 level; they all told me I wasn't big enough, fast enough and strong enough."
Playing against Loiseau's Division 1 dreams were an incident he was involved in as a junior. There was a fight outside his home, which left one person in a coma. It's an incident that is still brought up today, especially at the NFL combine, but Loiseau says he handles it in a truthful manner each time.
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"I got jumped by two kids who came to my house with weapons; they had pipes. I was trying to defend me and my father and my family. I actually got hit in the head with a pipe and got 28 stitches, but when I tackled the kid to the pavement he hit his head on the ground and went into a coma," recalled Loiseau. "They charged me as an adult at 17 years old; assault with a deadly weapon. They said the ground was my weapon."
"I can remember sitting in the cell at 17 years old and my lawyer said 'Shawn, you might be facing murder charges.' It was the first fight I had ever been in my life; it was a life changing experience," he said.
The chargers were eventually dropped, but the damage was done. Bigger schools stayed away from Loiseau, and he didn't receive any walk-on invites from D1 schools. Still, he feels the incident has made him stronger as he was able to overcome the ordeal.
"I've been surrounded by a lot of great people in my life. One of my great influences is my father. He's always told me everything happens for a reason," he said. "After that happen -- sitting at home after being kicked out of high school and having everyone in my town and everyone who heard about the situation thinking I was a bad guy -- at that point in my life I knew that what I wanted was to clear my name; that I could achieve more than just being known as a felon."
"My biggest motivation was to show people what I was all about, and I ended up going to college and ultimately trying to become one of the best football players in Massachusetts and be known around the country."
Enter John Perry, the football coach at Merrimack. He began scouting Loiseau as a sophomore at Shrewsbury when he was working at UNH. When Loiseau did not receive any D1 invites, Perry was there to give him a chance at the small Division 2 school in North Andover.
After becoming a full-time starter his sophomore year, Loiseau started to rewrite the books at Merrimack. He set a school record with 123 tackles his sophomore year, and was ranked second in the nation in tackles as a junior and senior. The 22-year-old finished his Merrimack career with a school record 382 tackles, which also ranks third in Northeast-10 Conference history.
Now he has his sights set on the NFL. He was one of the few Division 2 players to receive an invite for the East-West Shrine game, allowing him to showcase his talent against Division 1 talent.
"It was crazy; it was something I've been waiting for my whole life. I was foaming at the mouth to get down to Florida and knock these guys around," Loiseau said of the East-West game. "One of the biggest knocks on me going through this draft process – you don't have people telling you what you're good at, you have people telling you what you're bad at and all the things you need to improve on. A lot of these people were telling me I hadn't played competition; I'm only from D2 and haven't played anyone good yet. I was foaming at the mouth to get down there and show people I have what it takes to play at D1 level."
After the shrine game came in invite to the NFL combine, another step towards an NFL career for Loiseau.
And it was certainly an experience.
"You see all the stuff on TV, but all the behind the scenes stuff you don't see is actually the craziest thing; whether being in interviews until 12:30 at night or getting woken up at three in the morning for a drug test," he recalled. "One of the days we're in the hospital for 7 ½ hours; we had to get physicals from all 32 teams."
Now he will wait this week as the NFL draft gets underway Thursday night. Although his name is not appearing in many mock drafts, there is a chance he finds an NFL home in later rounds.
