Cheri Shepard can still remember the looks of a proud, beaming father as the couple watched their young son run or throw a ball. Her husband, Derrick, saw something special in their son Sterling.

His father, a retired professional football-player-turned-coach, recognized immediately that Sterling was different from other boys his age. Even then, Cheri and Derrick envisioned that the only boy among their three children would one day follow his father into professional sports.

Derrick, who died of a heart attack in 1999, played five seasons in the NFL with the Redskins, Saints and Cowboys.

Seventeen years later, Sterling was the Giants' second-round pick (No. 40 overall) out of his father's alma mater, Oklahoma.

"This might sound strange: I've never, ever doubted that he would [make the NFL]," Cheri said. "That's because when he was really small, his dad would say, 'Cheri, he's really athletic.' He would examine his form and be like, 'Look at his natural form when he throws a baseball.' Or, 'Look at the way he dribbles a basketball. He controls the basketball and dribbles real close to the ground. Look at the other little kid who bounces the ball high up and can't control the ball. [Sterling is] naturally athletic.'"

That kindergarten athleticism has blossomed into 4.48 speed and a jaw-dropping 41-inch vertical leap. Shepard is second on Oklahoma's all-time receiving list for career yards (3,482) and receptions (233). He's third with 26 receiving touchdowns.

But none of this has been a surprise to his family and others close to him. After his father died, the Oklahoma community embraced and nurtured him. A football inscribed with "Future Sooner No. 3" sits on a bookshelf in his room to this day.

When he was growing up, birthday cakes were shaped as footballs, and from the time he could write his name, he was practicing his signature in preparation for the moment he would become a football star.

"As a little kid, I was around the game a lot," Shepard said. "Being around my dad, who turned into a coach, and my uncle, who played football ... football is definitely in our family. It was definitely my calling."

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Derrick had just accepted a full-time position at the University of Wyoming when he died. Still, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops provided Sterling the opportunities he would've received if his father had not passed.

Derrick was a graduate assistant at Oklahoma before landing a job in his home state of Wyoming.

"Obviously, I kept an eye on him for all those years, never intending that we'd recruit him," Stoops said. "[The plan was] just to be there for him and help him develop as a young man," which included letting Sterling hang around the team. He attended practices, watched games from the sidelines and had full run of the locker room.

For most young boys, these would've been surreal experiences, especially in the college-football-crazy Sooner Nation. But to the young boy with NFL DNA, it was all pretty normal.

"I don't know he thought it was anything special he was doing," Cheri said. "He was very nonchalant about it.

"I think seeing the bonding and brotherhood in the locker room was inspirational to him. He talked a lot about what they did in the locker room and the rituals."

While absorbing what he was learning around the Sooners, Sterling was dominating flag football at 8 years old, already so far ahead of the competition that, despite being on the shorter side, other parents questioned his age. Shepard was always the star on the field, racking up touchdowns as if they were a birthright.

And, of course, in many ways they were.

"Things were natural for him," Stoops said. "As a young guy in our camps, he was good. "

By his sophomore and junior years in high school, the coaches at Oklahoma - if they hadn't already scouted him on their sidelines -- had taken notice to the future star, and Shepard, who scored 25 touchdowns his senior season at Heritage Hall High School in Oklahoma, came to Norman and started four games his freshman year.

By his senior year, Shepard was often the best player on the field. He caught 86 passes for 1,288 yards and 11 touchdowns that season.

And none of it was ever a burden. His mother and family never forced football on him. Neither did Stoops. They didn't persuade Shepard to go home at night and watch film of other great wide receivers, to study their technique. He did it on his own.

"For Sterling, it has always been fun. He loves football," Sheri said. "He will tell me time and time again: 'It's my passion. I'm made for this mom. I was made for it. It's in my DNA. And after I'm done, I'm going to coach it.'

"He sees football in his future whether it's as a player or coach. I think if I was in the corner pushing him, it would not be the same."

Hardly a surprise for a mother with minimal football knowledge, Cheri's more proud of her son's heart and humility than anything he's accomplished on the football field.

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Sterling's NFL destiny became reality on the second day of the draft, when the Giants selected him with the ninth pick of the second round.

When four wide receivers went off the board between the 15th and 23rd picks, there was hope Shepard might be selected in the first round. The family believed the Carolina Panthers at No. 30 were a possibility. They had expressed interest in Shepard.

But that pick came and went, and Shepard waited until the second day. He joins a Giants receiving corps with few givens other than Odell Beckham Jr. Victor Cruz is returning after almost two full years on the sidelines because of injuries, and Rueben Randle, a second-round pick in 2012, was allowed to walk as a free agent this offseason.

Shepard will be asked to contribute immediately, either in Cruz's spot as the slot receiver or beside him. Eventually, he'll likely become Cruz's full-time replacement. Scouts and pundits have pegged Shepard as a draftee who could (and should) make an instant impact.

To those near him, it all seems to have been preordained. He is where everyone seemed so certain he always would be.

"Once I had him [at Oklahoma], I felt [the NFL] was his destiny. Once I had him here you could see how hard he works and the talent that he has. You knew this was a realistic possibility for him," Stoops said.

Then he quickly edited himself.

"You know what?" Stoops said. "Rather than 'a realistic possibility,' it was a likely possibility for him."

TALK IS CHEAP, Ep. 53: How Giants can improve roster before training camp

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Jordan Raanan may be reached at jraanan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JordanRaanan. Find NJ.com Giants on Facebook.