Aug. 25, 2015
Every Tuesday, the Nevada athletic communications department will post a feature story as part of its Wolf Pack Weekly series. These stories will provide fans with an inside look at the Wolf Pack, and will focus on athletes on the field, in the classroom or in the community.
By Brady Johnson
Assistant Director, Athletic Communications
RENO, Nev. - For many student-athletes, the summer months provide a calm before the storm when fall brings a rigorous schedule with training camp and classes. This wasn't the case for Nevada football's Shane Cannon, who traded his helmets and pads this summer for a suit and tie, 40-hour work weeks and an internship of a lifetime on Wall Street.
A sophomore offensive lineman, Cannon landed an internship for First Data Corporations, a payment technology solutions company that handles nearly 45 percent of the countries credit and debit transactions.
While the hours were just as demanding as being a student-athlete and the tasks were just as arduous as being a tackle on the football team, the experience was invaluable for Cannon.
"It was a really cool experience," said Cannon, who is majoring in finance and economics at Nevada. "It was amazing to see how wide of a foot print the company had and to be involved with something so global. It confirmed for me that after football and school here, I'd like to go back to New York and start a career out there."
Cannon began his collegiate career at Assumption College in Massachusetts before transferring to Nevada. He went through the Wolf Pack's 2014 spring walk-on tryouts and earned a spot on the team when offensive line coach Ron Hudson saw a good combination of size and athleticism in Cannon. Nearly a year later to the date, Cannon landed a spot on another team; one that processes over 2,300 credit card transactions per second.
After one year of finance classes at Nevada, Cannon looked to bolster his resume and spoke with a mutual contact of his father - who also works in banking - and earned an interview and eventually an internship with First Data Corporations. Cannon then moved to the Jersey City area and got started.
Cannon worked in business continuity for First Data, which focuses an assuring the business can still operate during times of crisis; such as a power outage or a failure at a processing center. Don't be surprised that Cannon has a firm grasp of Nevada's playbook and his duties as a lineman considering the complexity of his summer internship.
"The playbook is a little easier to grasp because it stays fairly similar, but (the internship) revolved around worldwide issues," said Cannon. "From a worldwide perspective, there is always something going on that would require new planning, getting people to initiate production and communicating with many people across the country."
Cannon said that on of the highlights of the internship occurred when the company's executive vice president of global business solutions spoke with him one-on-one to offer career advice. The executive shared a useful quote with Cannon.
"He told me that success happens when preparation meets opportunity, and I really took that quote to heart," said Cannon. "I can apply it academically, professionally and on the football field."
Originally born in Virginia, Cannon's family moved to Reno when he was a young boy, where he would stay for 13 years and attend Galena High School. The Cannon's moved to the Boston area before his senior year and Shane graduated high school and then played football at Assumption.
Eyeing a return to Reno and a chance to join the Wolf Pack, Cannon transferred to Nevada and made the team during walk-on tryouts. Cannon has made significant progress from year one to year two, as he quickly cracked the team's depth chart this year after rejoining the team from his internship.
"We couldn't have him here in the summer, but we brought him back in and he almost immediately got into the two-deeps," said Hudson, entering his third season at Nevada. "Considering his internship, he's obviously intelligent. But, he's also football smart. He can watch film and self-correct himself without needing someone to say something."
Standing at 6-foot-5, Cannon has worked with Nevada's second and third string offenses at right tackle this fall. He'll likely get the chance to make his Wolf Pack debut this fall and potentially see playing time on special teams as a sophomore. A humble speaker, Cannon has modest individual goals for the season - making the travel team and helping the team win in any way he can.
Although whether he gets the opportunity to represent Nevada on the field this season is yet to be determined, one thing is certain; Cannon will be an exemplary representative of the Wolf Pack is the classroom and beyond.
