Matthews (N.C.) Weddington five-star running back Will Shipley has a lot of free time right now, like other high school students in his state and others nationally with many schools across the country shutting down in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Public schools in the state of North Carolina were ordered to close through March 27, so Shipley doesn’t have school for at least the next week. Meanwhile, the nation’s top-ranked all-purpose back and priority Clemson target cannot make any college visits right now as the NCAA has suspended all in-person recruiting until April 15.

While Shipley is having a little fun during his down time, playing video games with his brother who is back from college, he is also taking advantage of the extra time he has on his hands to prepare for his senior football season.

“My brother just got home from Penn,” Shipley said. “My parents went up and got him. He got home on Sunday, so I’m spending a bunch of time with him. We’ve been going pretty hard on the sticks. ‘Rocket League’, in the past couple days, we’re getting a lot better at that. That’s really the mainstream of what we’re playing on Xbox.

“But other than that, I’m watching a lot of film of teams that we’re going to play next season. We’ve got a new team on our schedule, Vance … So, I’ve been watching film on them, trying to pick out techniques, some things that would work. And (Wednesday) morning, I watched Christian McCaffrey highlights. Pulled a couple plays from Stanford’s playbook when he was in their offense, sent them to (Weddington head) coach (Andy) Capone, kind of just seeing what he thinks about them. Just things to occupy my time, but things that’ll also be helpful, not wasting my time.”

Shipley is not just sitting around all day, though, but still staying active at home with the help of workouts provided to him and his Weddington teammates by their head coach.

“Coach Capone has done a great job with us,” Shipley said. “He understands that people might not have the ability to get under a bar and squat or bench at home. But he’s sending us workouts to do daily, some really good body-weight workouts – push-ups, sit-ups, things like that. He’s done a great job in relaying that to us, but he’s also said it’s so important to make sure that you’re safe, your family. That obviously comes first, but we want you guys to come back stronger than you guys left.”

Shipley said he fully began to understand the severity of the coronavirus disease this week with his state taking protective measures against the outbreak.

“I definitely didn’t think it was going to be as serious as it is,” he said. “I think really earlier this week is when I kind of understood what was going on. School got cancelled for two weeks. Restaurants just closed (Tuesday) night for all dine-in stuff, it’s only carryout. So, I think it’s kind of made its point, like this is not going to be a couple week thing. I hope that it is. I hope they figure things out, figure out ways to just hurry up the process, expedite it. But I’m settled in for a good amount of time with my family, which I don’t mind. It’s really nice to be able to spend time with everyone and have the family back together. But I do hope this thing ends as quickly as possible.”

In case you missed it, here is TCI’s interview with Shipley regarding the latest in his recruitment.

Get your official Clemson gear right here!