Pitt FB Recruiting
Hard-Nosed TJ Lineman Shep Turk Was Made for Pitt Football
During the fall, weeks blend and become a blur for Thomas Jefferson’s Shep Turk. It all becomes a simple routine of sleep, eat, school, football, and repeat.
Since his sophomore year, Turk has become a fixture on the offensive line for the Jaguars, but now those treasured high school days are going by faster than ever for the Pitt football commit.
“I always wanted to play TJ High School football, so to finally be able to live it out was awesome,” Turk told Pittsburgh Sports Now. “It’s sad senior year, but that’s how it goes. Coming in as a freshman, I was so excited. I didn’t know anything and just interested to learn it all.”
Pitt commit Shep Turk. Sept. 27, 2024. Ed Thompson/PSN
While the weeks roll by, Turk and his fellow seniors slow it all down with their families to reflect on the last four years.
“We always have a team dinner on Thursday nights,” Turk said.
Turk’s parents, Greg and Dana Turk, hosted their round of the traditional pasta-style dinner in their Jefferson Hills home earlier this season before TJ’s game against McKeesport.
“The fact that we can do that, and our team chemistry is so good, that’s some of the most fun times being able to spend it with the seniors. Those are some of my best friends,” Turk said.
Sharing those moments with him are two of his closest friends and seniors at Thomas Jefferson, Matt Martinis and Kooper Kamberis.
“It’s truly special to have time with that group of guys that’s not about football,” Martinis said. “It’s a great time to bond and get ready for the game the next day.”
“It’s something we look forward to every week. You go through so much together throughout a season, you’re basically a family. You come together to laugh, joke around, eat some food, it’s always a good time,” Kamberis added.
Martinis and Kamberis have been by Turk’s side since middle school, throughout their football careers and as Turk announced his commitment to Pitt.
“We’ve been in the same friend group since middle school. I moved here in middle school, so that’s when we came together. High school, we stayed close. We eat lunch together every day,” Kamberis said.
As Turk and his close friends reminisce on what his journey has been, it started long ago.
Growing up in a competitive sports household
Turk remembers his dad getting him to put on the pads and hitting the field as far back as first grade.
“I started when I was real young. My dad really got me into the sport. Since then, it’s really all I’ve known,” Turk said.
Turk’s father was originally from New York but moved to Germany, where his mother was a flight attendant, at the age of 10. He played football for an American high school and then when he moved to Jefferson Hills, he passed down his knowledge to his son.
Like many families in the Steel City, the Turks have spent their Sundays watching the Pittsburgh Steelers. For Shep, he took note of certain players to model his play after.
“He’s already been here for a good bit, but TJ Watt, when I was little, James Harrison, guys like those. That physicality on defense, I really liked,” Turk said.
Football has not always been the main priority for the Turks, however. Turk grew up in a competitive household with three sisters, Riley, Tyler and Chase, who either played or currently play volleyball for Thomas Jefferson.
The competitive spirit has pushed each of the siblings to be their best, Turk said.
Martinis has also seen the family dynamics up close.
“They push him,” he said. “They want him to be the best, it’s been that way for as long as I’ve known them.”
Even in a family with four children, Greg and Dana have been by their son’s side throughout his youth and high school sports career.
“My parents have always supported me and been at every event,” Turk said.
Through everything, his parents made sure to raise him with a kind and humble personality.
“Respect’s a big thing. When you see someone, say what’s up and see how they’re doing,” Turk said.
Playing ball at Thomas Jefferson
Football players take pride in suiting up for a high school football program like Thomas Jefferson.
The program has won 10 WPIAL titles, with nine of them coming in the 21st century, along with five state championships. Most recently, the Jaguars won both district and state titles in 2020, when Turk was in eighth grade.
With all of the success that Thomas Jefferson has had, it has been spearheaded by longtime head coach Bill Cherpak, who is one of the winningest coaches in WPIAL history.
“It’s truly awesome to come into a program like this with such a legendary coach. Having the opportunity with his connections and knowledge of the game, it’s truly a blessing,” Turk said.
Thomas Jefferson teammates (left to right) Shep Turk, Matt Martinis, Luke Kosko and Brayden White. Sept. 27, 2024. Ed Thompson/PSN.
Turk has seen firsthand the type of players that were developed in the program and have gone on to play at the collegiate level and beyond.
“It was always cool to look up to the guys here. You come on youth night and older players like Noah Palmer and Devin Danielson, all those guys. Even when I got older, Shane Stump, Daniel Deabner and Logan Danielson. It was always cool to look up to them and play like them and win like them,” Turk said.
For Cherpak, when he first met Turk, he knew he would soon become a stout football player.
“A little pudgy kid,” Cherpak said when remembering his first time seeing Turk. “I knew his parents were big, his sisters played volleyball. We thought he would shoot up.”
By his sophomore year, Turk was inserted in as a starter on the offensive line. That season concluded with a 4A semi-final loss — the second-straight season in which TJ came up a game short of a championship appearance — to Central Valley.
“Being on those teams and losing those games, it definitely gets something in you that you want to come back the next year and make a difference,” Turk said. “Seeing the same results, you have to sit back and see what’s going on and see what needs to change and I think we got those changes going for us this year.”
With a year of starting experience under his belt, Turk was hoping his team could make a run to Acrisure Stadium in 2023. Winning the first six games, TJ looked in good shape. However, the season came to an end earlier than expected with a quarterfinal loss to Montour.
“A lot of ups and downs in that season,” Turk said. “We beat Belle Vernon in a big game and we were 6-0, and then we fell to Trinity. We take another loss to McKeesport. Before you know it, you’re getting a lower seed in the playoffs and then we’re playing Montour in the second round. The game did not go the way we wanted at all. That game was definitely personal.”
Those postseason experiences have created a drive within Turk.
“Sometimes you think stuff is going to go differently team-wise and how you’re going to end up. You just have to keep fighting, wake up the next day and keep fighting.”
From the Mat to the Gridiron
“Mean.”
“Violent.”
“Nasty.”
There are plenty of ways to describe Turk’s play in the trenches.
“When he gets his hands on somebody, he can really throw them around pretty good, especially when he gets down to those backers, it’s scary,” Kamberis said.
Shep Turk against Belle Vernon. Sept. 27, 2024. Ed Thompson/PSN
Turk has been working on his physical nature since a young age and once he got to sixth grade, he picked up another sport that strengthened his power on the wrestling mat.
The work put in on the mat and the gridiron has gone hand-in-hand for Turk.
“They really help with each other,” Turk said. “I think wrestling helps with football more than football helps with wrestling. Just the leverage, the hand fighting, the strength and flexibility help.”
“One of the major things that has helped him the most is wrestling,” Cherpak added. “It’s helped his leverage, it’s helped his feet. He stays on blocks as good as anybody we’ve ever had. He finishes on more blocks than any lineman we’ve had in a long time. He has that killer instinct. You put all that together, it’s pretty effective.”
Turk earned his first title on the mat during his junior season.
Defeating Waynesburg’s Roan Tustin with a 3-0 decision in the Class 3A WPIAL finals, Turk became the first TJ wrestler to win a heavyweight title at 285.
“It was a great experience getting that WPIAL title. That was definitely a goal of mine,” Turk said.
Not only did Turk set history himself, but two other Jaguar wrestlers claimed titles, marking the first time that more than one TJ wrestler won a title in the same season.
Maddox Shaw and Bode Marlow, a current Pitt wrestler, took home individual titles for Thomas Jefferson.
“It was great. It was cool being able to enjoy that moment with those two. It was cool to leave a legacy and some history with TJ with three WPIAL champs in one day,” Turk said.
The recruitment
As his junior football season came to a close last season and wrestling picked up, Turk was still awaiting his first Division I football offer.
“He was kind of getting worried,” Kamberis said. “He wanted to have that stuff early but we had to keep reassuring him it was coming.”
Even as Turk got anxious, his head coach knew that he had the makings of a college football player.
“I told our coaches before his junior year that he was going to be a D-I kid with his size as he filled out and got stronger and lost his baby fat. Sophomore year, he probably started at 250, maybe even less. We knew he was going to get bigger. He played at 260 last year and is 285 now. He didn’t lose anything doing that. That’s one of the things we talked about, ‘As you get bigger and stronger, you got to make sure you aren’t losing your footwork,’ and he didn’t. He’s a hard worker, he’s a leader. He’s exactly what you want as a coach,” Cherpak said.
While it took some time, once that first offer landed in late January, the recruiting process took off for Turk. First, it was Maine, then UMass and Eastern Michigan.
“It was a great feeling, knowing all of that hard work has finally paid off and you got that first offer,” Turk said.
However, he was waiting for something more, an offer from a power school.
“There was always some doubt in the back of your head. I always try to stay forward and keep working towards that. Even in middle school, I was always like, ‘‘The goal is Power Five.’ There really wasn’t another option,” Turk said.
After intriguing FBS offers came in from Army and Temple, that’s when the hometown and ACC program Pitt Panthers came calling on March 22.
“That was one of the best feelings in my life. Being able to get that offer, it was really the one I was waiting for and the one I wanted. It fulfilled a dream for sure,” Turk said.
A few months prior, Turk made his first visit to the program and knew it was a dream school for him.
“First visit ever was a game day visit down there versus [Florida State] my junior year. I fell in love with the school. I knew that’s where I wanted to go and stay close to home. That’s where it all started,” Turk said.
Turk — a three-star prospect — considered the likes of Army and Temple but it wasn’t very close he said as he quickly made his decision to commit to Pitt on May 13.
Home!!! #H2P #Committed @CoachDuzzPittFB @CoachDarveau pic.twitter.com/VkGFA8PWNN
— Shep Turk (@TurkShep) May 13, 2024
“We were just shaving off the schools and slimming them down until we found the top three. In the back of my head, I always knew it was Pitt. It wasn’t too hard of a decision,” he said.
“He was big on the hometown hero, that’s what he wanted to be,” Kamberis said about Turk’s process. “The kid from Pittsburgh, that knew everything around here and knew everybody and this is what you strive for. It took him a little bit to commit but once he got it, he knew that’s where he wanted to be.”
Turk will join a long list of former Jaguars that followed the road from Thomas Jefferson to Pitt, along with Devin Danielson, Lucas Nix and others.
“The WPIAL connection there, the TJ pipeline to it. The school in general, I love the way they play football. I love coach Narduzzi,” Turk said.
Cherpak, a former Pitt offensive lineman himself, knew Pitt was the perfect fit for Turk.
“I’m excited for him. We’ve had so many kids go through there with so many different coaches. Coach Narduzzi and the staff there, they were brutally honest with, ‘This is what it is, this is what we need from you and this is what we want.’ That’s what he wanted, and it matched up so well,” Cherpak said.
Courtesy of Shep Turk on X.
Building the Future of Pitt Football
Once Turk committed, he turned his focus toward the future.
From June 13-15, Turk made his official visit to the Pitt program, but the 2025 commit wanted to make more of an impact.
“I was at every OV weekend because I could go down there,” Turk said.
During the second weekend of visitors, Turk linked up with quarterback commit Mason Heintschel and began recruiting those who were uncommitted and considering Pitt.
“Me and Mason wanted to build the class around us. You’re going to be with those guys, so you might as well get the best,” Turk explained.
Courtesy of Shep Turk on X.
Offensive linemen Jordan Fields and Akram Elnagmi, athletes Shawn Lee and Josh Guerrier, along with defensive back Cole Woodson were some of those in Pittsburgh during the same official visit weekend with each of those players eventually committing to Pitt.
Turk played a role in reeling each of them into committing, but he became particularly close with one of those future commits.
“Cole Woodson, I got real close with on the official visit and he ended up committing a couple weeks later. He’ll probably be my roommate,” Turk said.
The two have kept in touch over the past few months thanks to an immediate connection.
“We really hit it off when we first met,” Turk said. “Similar personalities, both got the same humor, so we got along well.
“We just like to talk high school ball and college ball because his brother plays at Virginia Tech.”
Once again, Turk returned to the South Side facility a week later to meet another future commit and fellow offensive lineman Torian Chester.
“I went down the next weekend and ate breakfast with him,” Turk said.
The close proximity to campus and the facility allowed Turk to visit frequently and make an impact as a recruiter this summer.
“It’s nice. I’m blessed to go down there whenever I want. I was down there all over the summer. I was down for some spring practices. I try and go to every home game,” he said.
Courtesy of Shep Turk on X.
Turk has quickly become a familiar face on the sidelines during Pitt home games this season and was in attendance to watch Pitt defeat rival West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl.
“That was my first Backyard Brawl ever. It was awesome. It doesn’t get much better than that game in college football,” Turk said.
While Turk will not early enroll at Pitt due to high school wrestling, he continues to build a strong relationship with position coach Jeremy Darveau and has held conversations with current linemen such as Jason Collier and Terrance Moore about playing at Pitt and college life.
Closing Out the High School Career
As he closes out his high school career, Turk is looking to add that one thing that is missing: a WPIAL football championship.
Turk has been front and center in leading the Jaguars to an undefeated regular season record and a first-round playoff win.
“It’s been great, we just got to keep it rolling, keep dominating, play physical the way TJ ball is meant to be played,” he said.
With a championship on his mind, Turk has taken the opportunity to step up and take on leadership duties.
“He’s a big rah-rah guy and gets the guys fired up,” Kamberis said.
Thomas Jefferson led by Pitt OL commit Shep Turk looking to start the season 6-0 against rival Belle Vernon. pic.twitter.com/saS5oWX1n7
— Nathan Breisinger (@NateBreisinger) September 27, 2024
His personality and spirit motivate his teammates prior to games.
“He’s always bubbly, moving around real fast, laughing, joking around with people. He’s always going,” Kamberis said.
Not long from now, Turk will be on the field in a Pitt Panther uniform showing the culmination of leadership, humility and on-field domination.
Great article Nathan! Thanks for introducing us to Shep! I am excited to see him representing our PITT Panthers as a student/athlete. HTP!
Young Mr. Turk sounds like a pretty good “get”. H2P! 🏈