This Myrtle Beach Seahawk isn’t flashy, but he is a selection for the Shrine Bowl

All season, Evan Jumper has led the charge for the Myrtle Beach Seahawks football team and on Dec. 15, he hopes to do the same thing for Team South Carolina at the 82nd Annual Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas.

Jumper, an offensive tackle for Myrtle Beach, is the lone representative from the Grand Strand named to the Shrine Bowl. All season he’s protected the blind side for Luke Doty and the high-flying Seahawk offense, helping his team to a perfect 6-0 record.

“I honestly was kind of surprised I made it,” Jumper said. “I never really thought about it until spring this year. But I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.”

Jumper’s coach, Mickey Wilson, called his player’s appointment to the team a “no-brainer.”

“He’s one of those kids that you just don’t have to worry about in any way,” Wilson said. “You know he’s going to do the right thing in the classroom, in the weight room and on the practice field. He’s done everything we’ve ever asked of him without one second of hesitation – from changing positions to teaching other players how to do things. He’s a great asset for us.”

Jumper will head to Spartanburg at the end of his team’s season to compete with some of the best players in the senior class coming from North Carolina and South Carolina. A two-star player according to 24/7 Sports, Jumper will play football at Furman next season, after waiting for the right offer from a list that included Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State.

“I’m just looking forward to competing with some of the top guys in North and South Carolina and having a great time and a fun week,” he said, on the taste of college football that is Shrine Bowl practice. “(The recruiting process) was well worth the wait. It was difficult for me I think because I’m a little undersized. So I really had to take my weight gain seriously and there were definitely some days where I doubted myself but I just kept working and believing.”

The doubts of the player never crossed the mind of his coach, who knows that Furman is getting one of the good ones.

“He’s such a consistent kid day in and day out,” Wilson said. “He’s played and started for us since his sophomore year, playing everywhere on the offensive line. He’s a hard worker and really goes about things the right way. He had to wait for the right schools to find him, but now he’s up to something like 20 offers and teams have started to see what we’ve known all along. I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

The Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas will take place on Dec. 15 on the campus of Wofford University in Spartanburg. For more information, visit www.shrine-bowl.com.