Behind the Facemask: Shawn O'Dare
July 15, 2011
CORAL GABLES, Fla.–No dream comes true without sacrifice and these young men have worked to make their dream of playing at the U come true. Here are the men behind the sacrifice…
Shawn O’Dare | Wide Receiver | Sophomore | Vero Beach, Fla.
You can already tell that the Golden Era is going to be better. So far he’s done a great job. You can obviously see so many changes since last year. Last year was my first year with Coach Shannon, but you can tell the differences and just with the team chemistry so far.
At the U, I’ve learned so much from the older receivers, especially [Leonard] Hank [Hankerson], [LaRon] Byrd, and Travis [Benjamin]. Coming in last year, it was my first year playing receiver because I was a quarterback in high school. They helped me a lot through the transition of playing a new position.
Coach McDonald is great. He’s easy to talk to; I think he brings a different experience, different knowledge than what we had before.
No one can believe me and Byrd freestyle sometimes. I don’t think many people believe that.
Football has given me a sense of responsibility. It’s helped me learn about team cohesion for future jobs and stuff, because everything you do depends on your team, it’s not a one person thing. It’s just like football, a job interview. It’s a team thing.
I’m a Hurricane because of the family and the legacy of championships. When you think of Miami, you think of all the players that come back from the NFL. With the lockout, you see almost every one of them here and just their greatness and the greatness of championships. When you think of Miami, our fans, we expect to be competing for national championships every year.
When I played football as a kid, I pretended to be Dan Marino. I had my little J.C. Penney’s helmet with the jersey and the little football.
I’m not really superstitious, but I’m glad we’re sponsored by Nike here. In high school, I had to wear everything Nike.
A song that no one can believe I have on my iPod is Miley Cyrus, “Party in the USA,” It’s a great song.
The most influential people in my life are my parents. They have been instilling the stuff I do today in me since I was little, and just being supportive in everything that I do. If I thought I could do it, they thought I could do it to.
When I was six years old, I was a quiet kid just going with the flow.
Other than football, I’m talented at basketball. I played basketball in high school as a point guard, which was fun.
The actor I would want to play me in a movie is Brad Pitt, probably just because of the resemblance. (Laughs)
A lesson learned is hard work. If you set a goal that you really want, you can accomplish it.
I don’t really have a favorite midnight snack, but I always have a protein shake before I go to sleep. That’s my thing.
We are all in it together. It’s a family here of tradition. We all have to band together. When we had to pass our conditioning test, we leaned on each other. We did it. We’re2 all family.
I was raised in Vero Beach, Florida. I lived in the same house my whole life, as an only child.
I am afraid of getting old.
If I were a superhero, my name would be S.O.D., my nickname here, and my superpower would be invisibility.
Make sure to check in for a new Behind the Facemask profile each and everyday in preparation for the Hurricane football season opener. For a review of all past profiles, check out Behind the Facemask Central.
