Colorado star chose dreads over hoops
Versatile sophomore Laviska Shenault is college football’s leading receiver
BOULDER, Colo. – Laviska Shenault had a decision to make several years ago. If he wanted to play basketball at his high school in Texas, he would need to follow team rules and cut his dreadlocks. h It was hair vs. hoops. The choice was easy. h “It was my first sport, but I couldn’t play for my high school because of my hair,” said Shenault, now a star sophomore receiver at Colorado. “So I stopped playing basketball, and that’s why I started taking football seriously.”
Shenault isn’t the same as Samson, the biblical figure who derived his strength from his hair and lost his power when his hair was cut. But it’s true: There is something special about those dreadlocks. They’re flying all over the place for the No. 22 Buffaloes (4-0) — not just at wide receiver, but at every position on offense except offensive line, including at wildcat quarterback and tight end.
“He’s just a special kid,” Colorado quarterback Steven Montez said. “He runs like a receiver, but he looks like a linebacker. But he also can play tight end, and he can block like a tight end. He kind of just does it all. He can play running back if you need him to. He literally is just a jack of all trades. I don’t even know if I would say jack of all trades. He’s more like an ace of all trades.”
Shenault ranks first nationally in catches per game (9.5) and receiving yards per game (145.3), helping vault CU back into the hunt for the Pac-12 Conference championship with a monstrous energy source that comes from his heart, if not his hair.
It goes back to his father, Laviska Sr. He died in July 2009 at 39 after he got out of his car on a highway in Irving, Texas, and was struck by two other vehicles right afterward. His wife, Laviska Jr.’s mother, said they had pulled over to change drivers and that her husband slipped when he walked around the other side of the car. A pickup then struck him, knocking him to the ground, where another car ran him over.
She said Laviska Jr. was there. “He was actually in the front seat,” said his mom, Annie Brown-Shenault.
He was 10 years old, the second youngest of three brothers and three sisters.
“When his dad died, he started growing the dreads, and he said he was never going to cut them,” Brown-Shenault told USA TODAY.
The family struggled with the loss. Brown-Shenault said she lost her house but still pulled through with her family. And soon enough the boy became a man, filling into the same body frame as his father: 6-foot-2, 220 pounds, though his dad didn’t play college ball.
That tradition, and maybe those genes, came from his mother, who played basketball at the University of Dubuque in Iowa and still holds school season records for scoring (25.4 points per game) and rebounding (15.2 per game), both set in 1991-92.
“My mom swears I got all my skills from her,” Shenault told USA TODAY this week as his team prepared for a home game Saturday against Arizona State (3-2).
Wherever those skills came from, big college football programs started noticing at his high school in DeSoto, Texas. He said national powerhouse Alabama was among those to offer him a scholarship. He announced his decision for Colorado on Twitter in April 2016, before his senior year of high school. This was right after the Buffaloes had finished 5-40 in the Pac-12 in their previous five seasons combined, a far cry from the glory days of the 1990s.
“I wanted to come somewhere that was good before,” said Shenault, whose team calls him by his shortened first name “Viska.” “I wanted to bring it back and put my name on the map somewhere that wasn’t as big already.”
The Buffs did rise again, in 2016, fin- ishing 10-4 during Shenault’s last year in high school. A year later, they fell to 5-7 but got a glimpse of Shenault’s future the very first time he touched the ball as a freshman. That’s when he returned a fumbled punt 55 yards for a touchdown in a win against Texas State in 2017.
Afterward, he memorialized the moment on Twitter by posting a photo of it and writing, “This one for you pops.”
Shenault averaged 24 yards per catch last year but caught only seven as a backup to CU’s senior starting receivers.
This year, he’s been turned loose nearly everywhere by CU play-caller Darrin Chiaverini, leaving opposing defenses perplexed as they struggle to track him down. He’s scored six touchdowns in four games, including a 40yard game-winning catch at Nebraska last month.
“He’s played every position on offense except for offensive line,” said Chiaverini, who recruited Shenault. “When you’re able to do that with a player who’s gifted, then it’s hard to gameplan against him.”
The nation is starting to notice, even if the soft-spoken Shenault isn’t one to get loud about it.
“The thing that I love about (Shenault) is how humble he is and how he doesn’t take anything for granted,” said Mike MacIntyre, CU’s sixth-year head coach. “And he’s so appreciative of everything that he has.”
The memory of his father drives that, too.
“It definitely inspires me,” Shenault said. “It’s just my reason why.”