Wall’s Joe Shimko recognized as football All-American
The Shore Conference has an All-American football player, and there’s a good chance it's at a position you wouldn't immediately think of.
Wall senior Joe Shimko is one of the best long snappers in the nation and on Thursday he was officially recognized as a 2019 All-American during a ceremony at Wall High School. Having been selected to play in the 19th All-American Bowl, representatives from the game presented Shimko with his game jersey and a framed certificate to commemorate the occasion.
“It was pretty cool,” Shimko said.
The All-American Bowl features the nation’s top 100 high school football players separated into East and West teams. The game will take place on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019 at the Alamodome in San Antonio and will be nationally televised on NBC at 1 p.m.
Shimko is committed to North Carolina State and is ranked as the No. 1 long snapper in New Jersey and the No. 3 long snapper in the country by 247 Sports. Most long snappers are recruited as preferred walk-ons or receive partial scholarships. Shimko, however, was offered a full scholarship by NC State.
Shimko’s journey to becoming a long snapper is typical in that it was the quickest path to starting at the high school level. Now he’s one of the very best.
“I wanted to play varsity as a sophomore and that was the easiest way to get on the field,” Shimko said. “I’d say by the end of my sophomore year is when I started to get really good at it.”
Shimko hopes to follow the path of two former Shore Conference standouts who are now long snappers in the NFL. Clark Harris, who played at Southern, is the long snapper for the Cincinnati Bengals and Middletown South's Rick Lovato is the long snapper for the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
Shimko is also a linebacker for the Crimson Knights, who enter Week 8 off a bye and with a 4-2 record. They’ll try to lock up a Group 2 playoff spot when they square off against Neptune on Friday night.
Managing editor Bob Badders can be reached at bob.badders@townsquaremedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Bob_Badders. Like Shore Sports Network on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel for all the latest video highlights.
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