Leon's Shepherd enjoys a great challenge-Others may call him brilliant, but Max Shepherd just describes himself as active. Suffice to say he enjoys a challenge.
As Leon High's No. 1 boys' tennis player, Shepherd experiences his share of challenges when facing the opponent's No. 1 player. The senior's next on-court challenge will be Pace at today's Regional 1-3A semifinal matches at Leon.
"I like all the challenges you get as the No. 1 player," he said. "You never get the day off. It's physically and mentally demanding."
Shepherd is a self-confessed scrapper of a tennis player, one who rather than smashing winners past opponents scrapes up just enough points to win.
"I like to change up the game. Maybe I'll hit a ball with a lot of backspin. Maybe I'll be high energy or low energy. Just doing something different can get to the other player."
More remarkable are his off-court pursuits.
First know that this is a young man who has a gift for math and science. Twice he took the SAT college entrance test, and twice he scored a perfect 800 on the math portion.
"I don't watch much television. I like to go out, practice my guitar . . . sometimes I have to make up projects to challenge myself."
For instance, as a freshman, he and some friends created a Hovercraft from scratch for submission in a science-fair competition.
To change things up during their sophomore and junior years, they decided to make it a human-powered Hovercraft. The creation of their Hovercraft can be seen on www.youtube.com (type in human-powered Hovercraft, and it's the first item found).
Oh, by the way, if you're wondering who filmed and edited the video, you guessed it: Shepherd did. He plans to study film in college and someday become a director and producer.
"There are going to be so many challenges I'll have to overcome as a director and producer," Shepherd said. "I'm sure there will be nights when it's 12 in the morning and the actors are trying to quit, and I'll have to find a way to bring them together."
Given his record, Shepherd leaves little doubt that he's up for the challenge.
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