Danny Shelton is in high demand these days.

Currently one of the most sought after high school linemen in the country by colleges and universities, Shelton – who was selected the South Puget Sound League 4A North Offensive and Defensive Lineman of the Year this season – is so in demand that he doesn’t even remember how many letters he’s received trying to entice him to play football in the NCAA.

“I have a shoebox full, I know that,” the 6-foot, 3-inch, 300-pound Auburn High School junior said.

The interest all started last year as a sophomore, when the death of his father and a bit of advice from his older brother sparked a renewed dedication to excelling on the field.

Shelton, 16, was originally from Sacramento and moved to Washington with his mother and three brothers, Gaston, Shennon and Kevin in 1999.

Originally settling in Tacoma, it wasn’t until the family moved to Auburn that Shelton put on the pads for the first time.

“I played some pickup games in Sacramento, but never really joined a team,” he said. “When we moved up here, first I lived in Tacoma and never really heard about any teams. But when we moved to Auburn, my older brothers, Gaston and Shennon Shelton, played for Auburn High. I’ve wanted to be a Trojan since middle school.”

Already topping 6-feet in height and weighing 280 pounds, Shelton turned out for the Cascade Middle School team as a seventh-grader.

With his size and athleticism, the coaches at Cascade naturally saw a lineman in the making.

“At first it was hard,” Shelton said. “I was used to getting the ball and running it in pickup games, but at middle school they wanted me to play line. So I just had to get used to it. I had the physical part down, I just had to learn the plays.”

Shelton said learning the mental part, memorizing plays and blocking assignments, was not a problem for him.

“I’ve always had the grades down, because I’ve never really focused on anything but school work,” he added. “When it came to football, I already had the physicalness and the size, so the coaches just helped me out with the plays and the technique.”

Early on Shelton said he had the support of his family, especially Gaston, who let him know about his potential and told him if he made the right choices he could have colleges interested in him.

“I’ve kept that in mind and just tried to stay humble and focused on what I do,” he said.

Although Shelton said that Auburn’s offensive line coach Dan Erwin has been “like a father to him” it wasn’t until the death of his real father, who he said he’d never really known, that he began to knuckle down and get serious about football.

“I started to get more serious as a sophomore,” he said. “I started playing super hard every play, and I guess that got the attention of the colleges.”

His dedication to the game, paired with his natural ability and size, got the ball rolling and the letters began pouring in.

“The first letter I got was from UCLA, after our first game against Federal Way,” he said. “That’s when I knew that I had potential to be one of the greatest players who played at Auburn.”

Currently Shelton said he is weighing his options, trying to narrow down his list of college choices.

“Right now I would go to Alabama, because they’re fresh now,” he said, referring to the Crimson Tide’s inclusion in the NCAA championship game in January. “But I want to play defensive line, so I’d like to go to either the University of Oregon or LSU (Louisiana State University). I might go to UW too, I usually go to their games and practices and talk to some of their players.”

For now, however, it’s all about concentrating on getting the Trojans into the state 4A championship in the Tacoma Dome next season, and getting past the semifinals where the team has stumbled the last two seasons, losing to Skyline, 38-2 last season and Skyview of Vancouver, 34-21 this year.

“It’s really hard to win on the road like that,” Shelton said. “I think that some of the players on our team gave up which caused the other players to give up. We tried really hard to keep everybody up, but I guess it just didn’t work.”

Already, Shelton said he is dedicating himself to being more of a leader for the team next season. Shelton said he thought stepping up his leadership skills, coupled with a strong core of returners, including four-fifths of the offensive line, Nick Conlan, Cory English and Keila Suka and Shelton and 1,000 yard rushers Alphonse Wade and Austin Embody, would make the difference next season.

“A week after losing to Skyview we started having meetings with Coach Elliott,” he said. “At those we talked about what we’d do for the team and how we’re going to help out.”

“I want to be more of a leader and a motivator and go hard every play,” he said.