San Francisco 49ers linebacker Shayne Skov surprises Johansen football team

Shayne Skov’s journey to the NFL has been full of snags and snares.

The 49ers linebacker was removed from his football and basketball teams in high school because of sagging grades and eventually shipped off to boarding school.

At Stanford, Skov endured three knee surgeries in five months and then returned to finish his career as an All-American.

Still, his stock slipped so far that the can’t-miss talent’s name wasn’t called during the 2014 NFL draft. Passed over by every NFL team, Skov has lived the life of a free agent, bouncing between practice squads with the 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers before landing back in Santa Clara.

No, the track wasn’t greased for Skov, a Bay Area native who learned the game while living in Mexico. To that extent, he can sympathize with those he’s paid to chase and tackle – he’s been knocked down, beat up and humbled throughout his career.

Yet here he is, playing a marquee position for a team in need, a team he grew up rooting for.

And there he was Monday morning, hanging out with the Johansen High School football team, doing his best to light the path for 38 teenagers caught in their own snare.

“My path has been a funky one,” Skov told the student-athletes, “but I hope there is something you can take from it.”

These days, coach Grant Genasci and his program will take anything they can get. No Stanislaus District team understands hardship and desperation better than Johansen. The Vikings have gone 0-10 in each of Genasci’s first two seasons, and they’ve lost 31 of their last 32, a dubious stretch that spans four years.

During that time, Johansen has had more coaches (three) than victories (one).

Last fall, the Vikings were outscored 546-150. Johansen hasn’t enjoyed a winning season since going 8-4 in 2008.

Skov doesn’t put much stock in a program’s checkered past. He cares more about the todays and tomorrows.

“Will this make me better?” he said time and again.

As an example, he pointed to Stanford. Before he arrived on The Farm, the Cardinal wasn’t nearly the Pacific-12 Conference power it is today. Quite the opposite, actually.

“Coach (Genasci) told me you’ve had some hard times when it comes to football,” Skov said. “When I showed up (at Stanford), there were guys there that started their careers 1-11 (in 2006). By the time they were seniors, they were 12-1 during an Orange Bowl year.

“Watching them go to work, you could tell they didn’t want that to happen again. … Even though I didn’t know what it felt like to be 1-11, watching them, you learn that everything is a process.”

Skov’s message to Johansen was simple and succinct: “Enjoy the process.”

Those words have echoed about the practice field and locker room throughout Genasci’s tenure. Though the Vikings haven’t enjoyed much success on Friday nights, Genasci has asked his players and coaches to find the fun in the rebuilding effort.

Sometimes, it’s best to hear it from another’s mouth.

A task that monumental isn’t accomplished with one mighty leap, Skov warned. Using a track metaphor, Skov said becoming a 100-meter champion takes a series of steps, each setting up the next.

Though his trip has been fraught with missteps and setbacks, Skov has reached his finish line – the NFL – by being resilient, teachable and determined.

“He was going down the wrong path, but he switched up everything by going to Stanford and now playing in the NFL,” Genasci said. “I hope they get as much as they can about how if you want to achieve something, you have to work hard.

“It’s not going to just happen for you. Wins aren’t going to just come. We’re 0-20 the last two years. They can’t just hope for it to happen. They have to actively work at it.”

Skov surprised the Vikings following their weight room session with assistant coach Scott Sacuskie, also Skov’s strength and conditioning coach at Stanford. The team gathered in a classroom on campus, toting their cleats and bags.

They were told someone wanted to speak with them. They just didn’t know who.

When Skov entered the room, donning a Johansen football T-shirt, the chatter ceased. Players shifted in their chairs, training their eyes on the 6-foot-3, 245-pound linebacker renown for his big hits and intimidating face paint.

Skov spoke for more than an hour, sharing the details of his upbringing and his time at Stanford.

It took him five years to complete high school, and he spent time at a New York boarding school. A three-sport athlete, Skov marketed himself to small colleges – not Stanford or other Division I giants – believing that was his athletic ceiling.

“I grew up dreaming about Division III schools,” Skov said, “but now I’m playing for the team I grew up cheering for.”

Skov outlined his growth at Stanford, year by year, noting the steps it took to become a third-team All-American and captain of a BCS program. He embraced the process, discovering a love for the sciences in the classroom and laboratories while blossoming into the emotional leader of one of the nation’s best defenses.

His words were inspiring, like drops of gasoline onto the carburetor of a program running close to empty.

“It goes to show you that you could be at the bottom, but that doesn’t matter,” senior lineman Marcos Gonzalez said. “There’s a new season every year, and things can change.

“These past couple of seasons we haven’t won a game at all. A lot of people don’t like to come out because they think we’re not a good program anymore. In reality, we are. We have great coaches, great teammates and a great chemistry.”

This story was originally published July 13, 2015 at 9:22 PM with the headline "San Francisco 49ers linebacker Shayne Skov surprises Johansen football team."