Shaka Toney, Penn State's lone Muslim, blends football, faith, even fasting

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Long before the sun would rise, one of Shaka Toney's roommates would knock on his bedroom door to make sure he was awake for his 3 a.m. breakfast.

More often than not, Penn State's 6-foot-3, 218-pound defensive end was ready to go after getting up during the night to drink a gallon of water and scarf down a sandwich or two. Breakfast was Toney’s biggest and only meal of the day as the football team's only Muslim fasted from dawn to dusk during Ramadan.

“Going through workouts, everyone was supportive,” Toney told DKPittsburghSports.com. “Everyday somebody was checking, ‘Hey, how you doing? How you feeling, man? How many days do you have left? What’d you eat today?’ This is probably the best – I’m from Philadelphia and there’s a lot of hate from the city – but I never feel out of place here. It’s one of the biggest reasons I came here for this brotherhood.”

With Ramadan, a month of fasting and intense prayer running from May 26 to June 24 – also known as the heart of the Nittany Lions’ summer training schedule – Toney couldn’t have even have a sip of water or a piece of gum from dawn to sunset. A redshirt freshman whose weight has been scrutinized since high school, with people wondering whether or not he has the size to be a college defensive end, Toney worked with the Lions’ strength staff to try and figure out how he could fast and adhere to one of the five pillars of Islam while also trying to keep up in the weight room.



In the world of college football where sleep patterns and workout regimens of scholarship athletes are monitored and scrutinized, a player fasting for a month at any point of the year is a move that isn’t going to go over well with every coaching staff. Toney said he’s been dealing with being undersized his whole life, but this religious sacrifice wasn’t something that was negotiable during his recruitment.

“Going through Ramadan, there’s a lot of things about going through it and what you do it for and for me, what’s the point of not fasting just because I’m going through a little bit of pain?” Toney said. “At the end of the day I’m going to be able to be here and prosper so it’s a process and I fought through that process and I had a lot of support from my strength and conditioning coaches and my fellow wild dogs. They always made sure I had everything I needed.”

Toney fasted last year as well, but with Penn State looking for a breakout campaign from him this season and knowing that his body has to be able to withstand the pounding of an entire season, it was a tough balance to try and strike.

“He's got a lot of qualities that you hope to grow into with guys as they come in as freshmen, and he's bringing a lot of those to the table,” defensive coordinator Brent Pry said. “The one aspect is the weight, but he makes up for it in so many other areas. He's a guy – I've been around undersized ends a bunch of places, and there's a place for them. They have to have some elite qualities in other areas. When you have that kind of speed and athleticism on the edge, you couple it with a football IQ, there's pretty good stuff right there.”

Toney laughed when asked how many times he’s been questioned about his weight, but Penn State’s coaches said his quick first step is going to make him a name to know this season.

He’s long had the respect of those lining up next to and behind him.

“It’s hard to be that committed and that’s who he is,” linebacker Jason Cabinda said. “He’s very committed to his religion and I give him a lot of respect because not a lot of guys wouldn't be able to do that. You’re getting up, not able to eat all day and now you’ve gotta work out and you go to class and you’re tired all the time, you’re sleepy. That’s tough.”

There were workouts Toney physically couldn’t finish, but teammates rallied around him and admired his sacrifice. Toney’s faith has opened locker room conversations about religion, a topic that, along with politics, are two things James Franklin said he tries to avoid discussing at length with his 105 players.

The two topics certainly can divide people, but making sure all beliefs and walks of life are accepted and respected is something Toney said his teammates and coaches have been supportive of since before he arrived.

“From the day I got here as a recruit [defensive end] Torrence Brown treated me as a little brother even before I committed," Toney said. "[Defensive end] Shareef [Miller] has always been somebody who’s been there for me and as the process went on I just got closer to everybody. Everybody is always there for me so I never have to worry about feeling out of place. Even being the only Muslim on the team I feel like I can have an open conversation with anybody on the team about it. They’re all understanding.”

That bond between teammates was reinforced during Ramadan. When Toney was able to break fast at night he’d usually eat a little bit of bread and rice with water. The strength and conditioning staff made sure he was equipped with protein bars. They’d monitor Toney’s soft-tissue damage to determine if he was hydrated enough and teammates would give him little snacks throughout the day so at night he’d have the treats to look forward to.

Knowing he’d be physically and emotionally exhausted, the defensive linemen would invite him over and cook for him, with position mate Shane Simmons giving him leftovers so he could have a special meal. Then, his roommates and teammates, Dae’lun Darien, Miles Sanders and Anthony Johnson, would make sure he was up during the night when he was allowed to eat so he could consume enough calories and drink enough water to make it through the next day’s workout.

“It’s awesome that we can have the type of environment where we can have guys like that and we can make them feel comfortable and as involved and not make them feel like they’re any kind of outsider at all,” Cabinda said. “I think that’s one of the greatest things about the environment that we have here.”

Finding that fit was an instrumental part of Toney’s college search.

During his recruitment schools would try to sell the three-star defensive end from Philadelphia's Imhotep Charter on all the usual talking points, like playing time and player development. While he needed to know that, he also couldn’t help but wonder if he’d fit in. He’d ask prospective coaches about whether or not they’d support his daily prayers and fasting during Ramadan.

When he approached Penn State defensive line coach Sean Spencer, his current position coach was so wowed by Toney’s ability to rush the passer that he didn’t care what he believed in.

“The one thing about Shaka that you just can’t tell out there on the field is that he’s very smart. Very, very smart,” Spencer told me. “Quiet. He won’t say much, but when he actually says something to you it has meaning to it because he’s going to think about what he’s going to say.”

Still, the inquisitive teen knew the most honest answers to his college search would come from the team’s current players.

“Other schools were OK with that, but they didn’t reassure me as strongly as Penn State did,” he said about his religion. “Talking to my teammates about it and how it would factor in it just showed me that this is a great place to be. … They directed me to the cultural center on campus here. If I ever need a room or something I know I can get the room to myself when I need to pray. Everybody is supportive here. They always were like, ‘Shaka, whatever you need we’re going to provide.’ I heard that from the recruitment and that has never changed all throughout the process.”

His teammates have taken to asking him about the basis of his beliefs, using their own curiosity to better understand their friend and expand their own knowledge. While Toney tweeted the day after the election of President Donald Trump that he “[h]eard people screaming explicit comments about Muslims outside my dorm last night. It hurts because I am Muslim,” the quiet and introspective athlete still had his community of friends and teammates to lean on.

They even worried for him when he first arrived on campus and was missing from a team meeting. Showing up late to one of those could land a freshman in the doghouse in a hurry.

“He came in late and, like, you don't come in late to a team meeting,” defensive end Ryan Buchholz said. “You can't come late to a team meeting, so when Shaka came in late we were all freaking out. We went to our D-line meeting, and he explained that he was praying and the staff knew. We're all cool with him. I love him. We love him.”

Now, nobody bats in eye if Toney shows up wearing a traditional Muslim outfit and carrying his prayer rug. They make sure he has an open room to go to for his five daily prayers and then he steps back in without missing a beat.

On the field the Lions will need him to help strengthen a rotation of defensive linemen who have big shoes to fill. Teammates describe Toney’s game as a little more finesse than most as the sharp football mind is a technician off the edge. With Brown and Miller penciled in as starters and Spencer using around a dozen linemen per game they’re looking forward to adding Toney’s quickness to the mix.

“Shaka is a guy that everybody is going to say, well, he's not 260 pounds, so you can't play D-end in the Big Ten. I don't know about that,” Franklin said. “I remember walking in during spring ball and telling our coaches, change your mindset. Don't allow the fact that this guy's not this or that, and you say, well, he can't play because of this. Watch the tape, and watch how he's straining in the run game now more than he ever has. Watch him in the pass game on his third step before the offensive tackle is taking his first. He's going to bring something to us that we haven't had.”

He already has.