Brentaro Yamane

WPIAL & City League Football Player Preview: Burgettstown's Shane Kemper is a Dawg

Shane Kemper stands for a picture during the PIAA Wrestling championships back in March 2020.

One in a series on motivated high school football players in the WPIAL and City League.

It's a nice sunny day at a lake during the summer, and you might happen to see Burgettstown football player and wrestler Shane Kemper on a boat fishing. Some random people, who are also fishing at this so-called lake, see Kemper fishing might think to themselves that he is just your typical average high schooler. Little do the other fishermen know that the kid fishing in that boat is a standout athlete who is making a lot of a noise at the small-town Burgettstown High School.

Let's fast forward to the fall in where Kemper is now defending passes, intercepting balls, covering receivers, rushing with the football and simply just balling out on defense like a dawg for a Burgettstown football team that finished 2019 with an overall record of 9-1.

Now it's wintertime, and one weekend you're seeing Kemper pinning wrestlers down at Giant Center, located in Hershey, Pennsylvania, trying to win a PIAA wrestling title. Then another weekend you're seeing him play football at a PA Nike Elite Camp shutting down receivers on defense.

It could be said that Shane Kemper, who will be a senior in the fall, is a busy man who finds a lot of activities to do while making a name for himself on the football field and wrestling mat. This past school year in 2019-20, Kemper rushed for 234 yards and scored two touchdowns for Burgettstown's football team while finishing in sixth place in the 2020 PIAA AA 152 lb. weight class.

With Burgettstown being a small school, Kemper has found a way to shine under the lights. For football, he has received offers from Mount Union, Westminster, Grove City and Bethany. He has been making a lot of noise in both football and wrestling that he has not decided which sport he would want to play in college, and you cannot blame him for not knowing. He could even play two sports in college if he was given the opportunity.

"I have not completely decided what I am going to play in college, but I am very interested in playing football in college," said Kemper, a 3x PIAA wrestling qualifier. "I would like to major in sports management and accounting in college."

When it comes to Kemper's senior year of high school football, it will be a year of big expectations. Especially, since his Burgettstown football team got upset by Riverside in the first round of the WPIAL 2A football playoffs by a score of 42-35 last season.

"This is probably the most ready and excited for a football season I’ve ever been so I can’t wait until it actually starts", said Kemper, who has a grade point average of 3.91. "We learned a lot about ourselves and each other after the loss against Riverside from last season. The loss made us stronger and gave us something to put on our shoulder and drive us to becoming a stronger team."

Kemper knows that his Burgettstown football team still has the goals of WPIAL and PIAA championships, but Kemper also has some individual goals for himself. Also, after playing in multiple years in 2A for football, Burgettstown moves down to 1A in the Big Seven Conference in the fall and Kemper does not mind the idea of moving down in classification.

"So, with our team moving down a classification to 1A we expect to be a competitive team that is looking to win a WPIAL football championship," said Kemper. "I would say my goals for this season would be to reach over eight yards per carry and get at least five forced fumbles."

One of the organizations that Kemper is a part of is PA Nike Elite 7 v 7. This organization helps football players strengthen their skills. Kemper being a part of the organization has helped turned him from a good football player to a great football player. He credits PA Nike Elite 7 v 7 for turning him to a better player.

"The impact PA Nike Elite has had on me is tremendous, it brought me close with some of the best players in the area and it let me face some of the top players in the country and they have helped put my name out there a lot. It’s just made me a better football player because it let me see I can play with anyone," said Kemper.

As Kemper continues to try to get better at football and wrestling, he has made a lot of new friends from other schools. For anyone wondering, you might be wondering who is the best wrestler that he has ever faced.

"So, throughout the years, I’ve made some pretty good friends on the mat and on the field with people who go to different schools. Some people that I used to wrestle with and still have a connection with are Donovan McMillon (Peters Township) and Nico Flati (West Allegheny). Some football relationships I’ve made are pretty new but some people I work out with now and am friends with are Marcell Holyfield (Taylor Allderdice), Ameer Dudley (Central Valley), Aaron Willis (Windber), Chris Popovich (Penn-Trafford) , and Josh Hathaway (Blackhawk)," he said. "The best wrestler I’ve wrestled from this area is Cole Spencer (Pine-Richland), but in the whole entire state, I’d probably say Gavin Garcia (Southern Columbia)."

Also, for Kemper, in his final year of high school, it will be his first year of high school without his older brother Riley Kemper, who graduated from Burgettstown this past year. Riley also played football and wrestling in high school and will play college football at Robert Morris University in the fall. Riley will play somewhere on the offensive line. It will be different for Shane knowing his big brother will not wrestle or play football on the same team for the first in years, but he will definitely find a way to get used to it.

So, Riley's impact on my life probably can’t be put into enough words," Kemper said. "Riley has been there through everything and pushing me to be the best person and athlete that I can be. Also, with my brother being in my life, it gave me someone to look up to. I had someone that I wanted to be like and model some stuff after him and it was such a blessing having him there to push me my whole life."

Shane Kemper has made a name for himself at Burgettstown. His work ethic, the close friends that he has made, and his brother are some of the parts that have helped turned him into a great young man and a dawg as an athlete.

Brentaro Yamane: bkyamane@gmail.com and Twitter/Instagram @BYHilton13