Mandeville High School 2025 running back Nate Sheppard is one of the top running backs in a loaded class for the state of Louisiana and the 1st Team All-State runner made his college commitment yesterday afternoon. The three star prospect chose the Duke Blue Devils over Cal, Cincinnati, Northwestern, and Tulane.
“Obviously, I am very excited about Duke. I feel like it’s a perfect fit for me and hopefully, I can make a difference and set some standards.”
Mandeville 2025 RB and Duke commit Nate Sheppard
Later that evening, Sheppard showed Blue Devil fans what they will be seeing Saturdays in the fall in a scrimmage against the Jesuit Blue Jays. The brother of former Vanderbilt and current Colorado wide receiver Will Sheppard, who was also a Skipper great, was in midseason form by rushing for 122 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries. He even had a third touchdown run when he trucked a Jesuit defender, but that was called back due to a holding penalty.
“Obviously, I sat the first 40 plays, but watching the team get the ball out and getting to coach them and watching them get experience was great. Once I step on the field, we turned it up a little bit and getting in the end zone is always exciting. I got to thank the offensive line for doing their job and seeing the wide receivers block as well is a great feeling.”
Mandeville 2025 RB and Duke commit Nate Sheppard
After leading the team to the Semifinals with 2,132 all-purpose yards and 36 touchdowns, he is ready to once again lead Mandeville to a deep playoff run and perhaps a final game in the Superdome.
“We are defending semifinalist so everybody wants to beat us and we want to beat them. Knowing that and getting this offense going, getting our blocking assignments down, hitting the right holes, it is very influential to our offense.”
Mandeville 2025 RB and Duke commit Nate Sheppard
Obviously, Sheppard stole the show, but there are plenty of other big pieces for the Skippers that had great outings during the scrimmage. Senior Michael White is a great two way player on offense and defense. He made an impact with 33 yards receiving plus an interception on defense. He and Dylan Henry, who already holds a DI offer from Oregon State round up a playmaking secondary.
Offensively, quarterback Ben Hendricks finished the live scrimmage completing 6 of 9 passes for 80 yards and a touchdown to a wide open Collins Schwing from 45 yards out.
The Skippers were able to get the best of the Blue Jays on the scoreboard in the two quarter scrimmage 21-7 even without the efforts of Isaiah Baham, who sat out of the scrimmage and is another great running back for them.
Despite that, the Jesuit Blue Jays had their moments including in the controlled portion of the scrimmage as senior defensive back Darrick LeBeouf intercepted Hendricks for a 55 yard touchdown.
The only score during the times scrimmage was when freshman Michael Cerruti punched it in for a one yard touchdown run off a 10 play drive.
Head Coach Ryan Manale said that the team showed its moments, but that they need to be more consistent and learn from their mistakes.
“I’m happy about some positives I saw and I’m happy about some correctable things I saw. That’s where we’re at in the preseason. We want to see what we need to see and get some guys on film. We played well at times and there were a lot of good lessons learned.”
Jesuit Head Coach Ryan Manale
The Blue Jays have to replace Gridiron Football All-American quarterback Beau Perez, who is now at Southeastern, and they are auditioning four quarterbacks in Taylor Norton, Johnny Nyein, Garrett Jordan, and freshman Sully Sullivan. All four quarterbacks combined to completed 8 of 16 passes for 41 yards and one interception.
“Today, we had four quarterbacks. All of them had some positive moments and all of them had some correctable moments. They had some balls that were left on the field and maybe could have scored or have made a big play. That is part of it early on as guys are humble enough to improve. Taylor Norton is the guy who started. I thought he did a good job. He may have overthrown it on a few balls, but we are going to work on fundamentals and we will work on it tomorrow. Johnny Nyein came in and drove us down the field to score a touchdown. I thought he did a good job of managing that drive. To work with Sully Sullivan, a freshman, and get him some action, he was out there with some happy feet and then, we threw our sophomore Garrett Jordan out there. It’s going to be a challenge to see what pieces on offense we have to move the ball consistently, but I like where we are at.”
Jesuit Head Coach Ryan Manale
Next week, Mandeville will play its jamboree against Franklinton while Jesuit will play their jamboree next Thursday against Northshore.
*Stats were taken by Cameron Cerniglia!
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