Sherwin Shayegan: A man amongst boys, a titan amongst men? [rquoter]HELENA, Mont. -- The stocky man showed up in a basketball uniform for a game at Century High School in North Dakota. Players and coaches assumed he was a fan who had come with another team, so nobody objected when he began to pitch in around the bench. "He helped lay out uniforms, got water. He even gave a couple of kids shoulder massages. Creepy stuff like that," said Jim Haussler, activities director for the Bismarck Public School District. After the game was over, the man joined the winning team on the court and asked if he could get a piggyback ride. One bemused player gave it to him. "He makes himself appear as if he's limited or handicapped. I think he plays an empathy card, so to speak," Haussler said. "We didn't realize what we were dealing with until several days later." What they were dealing with the night of Feb. 4 was the Piggyback Bandit -- Sherwin Shayegan of Bothell, Wash., a 28-year-old man who ingratiates himself with high school sports teams, then hoists his 5-foot-8, 240-pound frame onto the backs of the student athletes. Shayegan's antics stretch back to 2008 and had been mainly confined to Washington and Oregon. But since last fall, he has worked his way east to Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota, leaving a trail of befuddled athletes in his wake. Shayegan has asked for piggybacks, attempted to pay for piggybacks and just sprung one upon an unsuspecting kid. He favors basketball games, but he also has leapt onto hockey, soccer and football players. He has pretended to interview athletes for a term paper, acted as a team manager or just tried to blend in with the crowd for a piggyback payoff. Why he does it is unclear[...] "I think at one point he was giving water to individuals," said Mike Ludwig, St. Olaf's sports information director. But he kept getting too close to the players, making one coach uneasy. Someone told Shayegan to back off, and he did, Ludwig said. [...] "He's certainly socially awkward in any social setting. But he's also not afraid to approach people. It doesn't take very long to find out he's a little bit different," Colbrese said. "What people don't realize is that he's very smart. He knows how to play the system. He just knows what to say and how to say it."[/rquoter]Sure, sure, say what you will. And yes, you are absolutely correct. But you have to admire a man who knows what he wants out of life, and is willing to act on that dream, pushing aside the hobgoblins of little minds, in order to reach his goals. The man wanted a piggyback ride. And the man got his piggyback ride.
It's not that he's piggybacking these sweaty young boys, it's what he's doing hours later at home when he's thinking about it.
