Swartz

There have been no football games showcased at Shepherd University since the close of the 2019 season.

Shepherd’s conference — the PSAC — cancelled the 2020 fall season after much consideration and trying to draft some sort of schedule for its schools.

At Shepherd, there was an effort made to maintain some continuity inside the football program. In the planning activities, an intra-state game was even announced, but that effort didn’t come to fruition, and the game was scrubbed.

But Shepherd keeps trying!

Duckworth

On the National Signing Day for corralling recruits for the next season, Shepherd revealed the names of 12 recruits that will join the program, in what could be a 2021 season and beyond.

Becoming Rams for the future were six transfers, who last played at a variety of four-year schools.

Chantz Swartz is a running back coming in from Lock Haven University, a school in the now-familiar PSAC. Ronald Beasley is an offensive lineman who was at New Mexico Highlands University. Kendall Duckworth is a linebacker from the University of Kansas, and Jonathan Moss is a wide receiver coming from Murray State University in Kentucky.

A WVU transfer is offensive lineman Adam Stilley, who prepped at Martinsburg.

Coming from Fairmont State University, of the Mountain East Conference, is Danny Ainge, who was with the defense, while with the Fighting Falcons.

Beasley

Defensive back Cameron Prescott hails from Upper Marlboro, Md.

Offensive lineman Brandon Carr is from Reisterstown, Md.

Sykesville, Md. is the hometown of defensive lineman Jack Baxter.

The lone quarterback signed is Lee Powell, who played at Bishop McDevitt and is from Carlisle, Pa.

Shepherd recruited two players from our Eastern Panhandle, in offensive lineman Ethan Northcraft, from Musselman High School, and lineman Nathan Muhle, from Jefferson High School.

Moss

The Rams made their debut in the PSAC in 2019 and finished that first season with a 10-3 overall record. Rewarded for their winning ways, the Rams earned a berth in the playoffs, where they defeated Indiana and lost in the next round to Slippery Rock, a team that boasted the NCAA Division II Harlon Hill Trophy-winning quarterback.

As optimism abounds and schools, coaches, players and fans anticipate a 2021 season, Shepherd has kept pace with other programs that have attempted to accomplish much in such troubled times.

Stilley