By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
OTTAWA -- Former Shawnee Heights standout Gavin Zuperku will not play college football, opting to study engineering at Kansas State.
But that didn't stop Zuperku from jumping at the chance to play football one last time in Saturday night's 50th Kansas Shrine Bowl at Hays after getting the call a little over a month ago to join the East team as a replacement pick.
Former Shawnee Heights standout Gavin Zuperku (68) will play offensive line for the East in Saturday night's 50th Kansas Shrine Bowl at Hays. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"It's a great opportunity for me, just to be out here and play football one last time,'' Zuperku said before Sunday night's East practice session at Ottawa University.
An All-Shawnee County Top 22 and first-team All-United Kansas Conference selection as a senior, the 6-foot-1, 240-pound offensive lineman admitted that it wasn't an easy decision to quit playing football, but said it was time to move on to the next stage in his life.
"I love football, I've played it all my life,'' Zuperku said. "Football's taught me so many things and it was tough to walk away from it, but I just realized that my intentions or my desires were elsewhere and I wanted to move on and go to K-State.''
Shawnee Heights product Gavin Zuperku (68) is slated to play his final football game in Saturday's Kansas Shrine Bowl before studying engineering at Kansas State. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Recent Shawnee Heights graduate Gavin Zuperku (68) will play for the East in Saturday's Kansas Shrine Bowl after earning All-Shawnee County Top 22 honors as a senior. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Zuperku, who was also a second team All-Shawnee County and All-UKC pick in baseball, said he's excited to get started in the engineering field at K-State.
"I first heard about it from one of my brother's friends,'' Zuperku said. "He was in construction science and engineering and he got to travel the world on internships and that just sounded so fun to me because I think I would thrive in a leadership role like a contruction science or project manager would.
"I felt like it was a good fit and I started looking at some of the job careers and other stuff like that and there's a good program at K-State at a school I've always wanted to go to, so it was an easy decision.''
But before he turns the page, Zuperku, who will play guard or tackle for the East, is stoked to make the most of his final game Saturday night (7 p.m. kickoff).
"I get to play with all these all-stars and great players from Kansas and it's just aweome being out here with these guys,'' Zuperku said. "They're all great dudes with some good personalities and it's great.''
Zuperku is one of four Shawnee County products who will play for the East, joining Rossville's Jacob Carver, Hayden's Ben Evans and Washburn Rural's Ty Weber while Hayden coach Bill Arnold is an assistant coach for the East.
Carver will play offensive line for the East while Evans will play defensive line and Weber will play linebacker.
Carver is headed to Emporia State, Evans to Coffeyville Community College and Weber to Washburn University.
