From security guard at a Nissan plant for 2 years after high school to a JUCO WR Miami covets: The remarkable story of Shemar Kirk
The Miami Hurricanes will host several JUCO/transfer portal visitors this weekend, with the list expected to include DL Tywone Malone (Mississippi transfer visiting Thursday-Friday), OL Amaury Wiggins (Coffeyville Kan. C.C.), LB Larry Nixon III (North Texas transfer) and DT Keivie Rose (Louisiana Tech transfer).
All four of those players would be nice additions to the team, for sure, but there’s another visitor who has them all beat … off the field.
That would be another Miami visitor, Reedley (Calif.) College WR Shemar Kirk, who was offered by UM earlier this week and arrives on campus tonight and stays through Saturday night. Malone, Wiggins, Nixon III and Rose all followed that traditional high school to college or junior college path. Kirk? Not so much.
He’s a unicorn in recruiting circles. Heck, it’s hard for anyone on the CaneSport staff to remember a background story quite like his.
It started in high school, when Kirk attended McGarock High in Nashville, Tenn. He went out for the football team as a freshman, didn’t do particularly well and decided he didn’t want to play his sophomore year. His junior year he came back out for football but says “it just wasn’t clicking.” His senior year? That saw a solid performance, but not enough to garner interest from any colleges or junior colleges.
“I was immature in high school,” he says.
So Kirk went into the workforce, working security for two years at a Nissan automobile assembly plant in Smyrna, Tenn. The 6-0, 190-pounder with 4.4-second speed was stationary, sitting at the guardhouse and writing down everything that would come through the gate.
“The job was 5 a.m. until 1 p.m. every day, I’d wake up at 4,” Kirk says. “I thought I’d wind up working security someday for my brother (Shedrick Kirk, who played in the USFL out of Kentucky Wesleyan).”
Did he enjoy working at the plant?
“It actually was cool,” Kirk says.
Not as cool as playing football. Kirk’s love of the game grew in those two years, as he played flag football with college student-athletes and realized he could compete at their level.
“I’d watch Alabama games on TV and be like, `I can do that,’” Kirk says.
All he needed was an opportunity.
He got that when Reedley College began recruiting his stepbrother, Tamicus Napier.
“I sent them my (high school senior) film, said `Let’s go, I’m ready,’” Kirk said. “I felt that was the perfect opportunity, and they took a chance on me. They took him first, but they thought my high school film was nice and they wanted me.”
The rest is history.
As a freshman Kirk had 45 catches in eight games with 782 yards and eight TDs. That included an 85-yard TD. This past season he played in 10 games and had 31 receptions for 664 yards with seven TDs. One of those? A 90-yarder.
He played slot and outside receiver and anticipates wherever he winds up now will move him around.
What clicked these last two seasons?
“Just the mindset,” Kirk said. “God put me through that fire and I had to mature and get my mindset right. I felt I always had the ability to play wherever.”
He showcased that big-play ability Miami was missing so much last season when the Hurricanes’ top wide receiver, Colbie Young, had just 367 yards.
Miami offered on Monday of this week, and on Tuesday Kirk got his first chance to talk with WR coach Kevin Beard on the phone.
“We talked for two hours,” Kirk said. “It was moreso the process, the whole process of who he is as a coach and his mission on earth. It was some real good stuff. It was amazing.”
Now the 22-year-old is ready for the next chapter of life. And it doesn’t involve security or cars, unless he’s in the driver’s seat.
He’s already taken visits to Robert Morris, Tennessee Tech, UNLV, Texas A&M and most recently UCF. He anticipates Miami will be his final visit.
He’s coming with a teammate, WR Dallas Parker, who is a big Miami fan but isn’t being recruited.
“Miami is high up for me, I can say that, I’ve had some good conversations with them,” Kirk says.
Kirk is currently finishing up junior college classes and will enroll at the school of his choice this summer. He plans to announce his decision May 13.
“That’s the day I graduate (from Reedley),” he says. “I’ll be choosing between all the schools that I visited. Miami is going to be up there.”
The decision will be a nice graduation present.
One he certainly earned and never expected a few years ago when he was wearing a security uniform instead of a football jersey.
A Kirk highlights from high school:
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