LANTANA – Jorris Shepherd has had a high school football experience to remember at this point.
As the 2026 quarterback is about to enter into his junior year at Santaluces under the leadership of head coach Hector Clavijo III, he was open to speaking on his several stops prior to this one.
But first, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound signal caller touched on what led him to play for the Chiefs now.
“Transferring to Santa my first time meeting the team was when we played in the Georgia Tech 7-on-7,” said Shepherd, who took part in a multi-campus tour last month to schools such as Georgia Tech, USC, North Carolina, Mercer, Gardner-Webb, Furman, UAB, and Miami (Fla.).
“Even though I was new to the plays and concepts, I did good at that 7-on-7. I missed a few reads and a few throws, but I’ve been working on learning the plays and reads with Coach Hector’s help and I’ve been getting better each tournament.”
The experience that Shephard gained over the course of last month helped Santaluces reach the semifinal round of the Keiser 7-on-7 Tournament on June 29.
And now with the summer offseason in full swing, Shephard touched on how it has been going with his team for daily workouts and other activities.
“The 7-on-7’s for our workouts have been a great way to learn the plays and get the reads,” Shephard said. “I have learned a lot with Coach Hector’s help and I am ready to start 11-on-11 football. With the experience I bring as a two-year varsity starter and with the talent we have all around, I think we can win states this year.”
Speaking of that past experience, Shephard has reclassified from the 2025 class to the 2026 class in the past. His journey began at Jupiter Christian as an eighth grader and continued at two stops for his freshman season: American Heritage (Delray Beach) and Palm Beach Central.
“I reclassified in seventh grade,” Shephard said. “My parents and I agreed that it would be a good thing to give me an extra year to grow and in the end help me with my goal to go Division 1. Also with doing that, it helped me be able to start my eighth grade year on varsity and have a really good season.”
Shephard spoke on his time at Jupiter Christian with head coach Baz Alfred.
“Jupiter Christian was a great experience and I’m glad I got to start there playing under Coach Baz,” said Shephard, who threw for around 2,000 passing yards and had 29 touchdown passes as an eighth grader. “Coach Baz is still my guy and we keep in touch.”
After splitting time at American Heritage (Delray Beach) and Palm Beach Central as a freshman, Shephard moved on to St. John Paul II this past season as a sophomore. He was the team’s starting quarterback there, finishing with around 1,100 total yards and 10 total touchdowns.
So with the transfer move to Santaluces, this marks as Shephard’s fifth team that he will be suiting up for on the high school level.
“People say transferring a lot is bad and I agree to some degree,” Shephard said. “But I don’t regret any of my decisions because I was able to see and learn from a lot of people in the process.”
At this time, Shephard does not have a college scholarship offer. But with his 3.8 overall grade point average, the scholar-athlete has been able to garner interest from the likes of Yale and Cornell.
“I am going up to their camps this month,” Shephard said. “Recruiting for high school players in general has become a lot harder with the transfer portal and less scholarship available.”
With that said, Shephard was open to sharing his personal aspirations for his upcoming junior year.
“As an individual I want to get noticed by more colleges and get offers,” Shephard said. “I also want to get better overall with my speed, reads, and accuracy. And I stated before, as a team, we have one goal: win states.”
PHOTO CREDITS: QB Takeover
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