Shawna Shanklin and her son, JaShon Waddy, were heading to a football camp at the University of Texas at Austin during a mid-summer morning.
The pair were driving from Angleton, a city of just under 20,000 people, located 44 miles south of Houston and over three hours away from the capital. Waddy was about to be a senior defensive back at the town’s high school, rated as a two-star athlete by 247 Sports and just starting to get attention from college coaches.
The Wildcats had a history of sending student-athletes to the next level, including fellow defensive backs Quentin Jammer and Quandre Diggs. The brothers graduated from Angleton’s secondary to join the Longhorns in Austin and were eventually drafted into the NFL. A strong performance at Texas’ camp might have put Waddy on a similar career path.
