Zach Shackelford is back.
After he suffered a season-ending injury in Week 2 of the football season, Keystone’s 2022 Division V All-Ohio wide receiver turned quarterback is excited to make his return on the basketball court.
“I wasn’t able to walk for the next 14 weeks after (Week 2 of the football season). It’s been a while,” Shackelford said. “I started working with my (personal trainer). I got out of that really quick and now, I’m playing.”
Keystone is in the midst of a 4-3 (3-1 in Lorain County League) season. The Wildcats missed him for the first five games of the season, which included a 63-53 loss to Brookside.
His return came in a 66-34 win over Oberlin and was followed up with a 68-44 win over Clearview.
“It’s definitely a struggle I’d say to knock the rust off. It’s fun playing with my friends,” he said.
Shackelford might not be the centerpoint of the basketball team, which is occupied by Grant Hartley and freshman Liam Goran. However, he adds depth to the Wildcats’ roster that has won four straight games after an 0-3 start.
In two games, Shackelford averaged 4.5 points per game, five rebounds and 2.5 steals.
Keystone coach Jeff Holzhauer, who is also its athletic director and track and field coach, was thrilled to see his return.
“I don’t even know what his numbers were (against Clearview), and I don’t care,” he said. “Just for him to be on the floor makes such a difference for us. … He opens things up. It gives us more skilled athletes on both ends. He can attack the rim. He can shoot. That is a threat that can free Grant (Hartley) and Liam (Goran). He can defend as well as anyone on the floor.”
Even though Hartley doesn’t play football, as a basketball teammate, he was excited to see Shackelford in the lineup.
“(Having Shackelford) relieves me. There is another guy out there that I can trust. He is a great athlete, and he helps us out a lot,” Hartley said.
Shackelford entered the 2023 football season as a player to watch for the Matt Wilhelm Award. In a 41-0 Week 1 victory over West Salem Northwestern, he scored five touchdowns on offense (three), defense (pick-six), and special teams (60-yard punt return).
“When you watch the film with Zach (Shackelford), he is dynamic and teams got to pick their poison,” Keystone football coach Don Griswold said.
He appeared to be one of the award’s frontrunners after the first week of the season. However, his season was cut short after he was tackled the following week against Cloverleaf.
Per Griswold, Shackelford endured the emotional toll in the injury’s aftermath.
“(Shackelford) told me that he would have dreams about the injury, early on in his healing process,” Griswold said. “He went for surgery and went through months of therapy. He had a walking boot on. Then, he would have the boot on half the time and (eventually) get rid of the boot. … It’s been a somewhat slow process for him. Like everything Zach has done, he attacked it.”
Keystone football (4-6, 3-4 in LC8) struggled offensively to average 11.7 points per game. The Wildcats’ defense kept them in a lot of games, but the lack of complementary football made victories hard to come by.
“We saw three or four wins evaporate right off the top (after Shackelford went down),” Griswold said. “We were left-handed when it came to offense. We struggled to be multi-dimensional and play team football. Teams packed the box. We had to literally scrap and fight for every offensive first down and any touchdown that we scored.”
Shackelford is a junior and will be a senior for the 2024 season.
