Interesting.
Haha, that would have made for a pretty different flavor of character compared with the actual set of hobbies he ended up with (music, cooking, astronomy, some spinoffs also make him a hobby writer - all much more "soft"). Though it fits with how some of the proposal images have him looking sportier.
The super early draft also had Kaworu be a great athlete (perhaps also to keep with the parallelism/ as part of being like a cooler version of what Shinji wishes he was)
In the end it was sort of Asuka who got that part/aspect of wowing everyone with various skills upon arrival, but she's going through the motions & not really feeling it - but it's not quite the same as that other version of Shinji would have been given that she's very anti-obedience & counterdependent.
That would've been a character a lot more like Arima from Kare Kano, perhaps.
It does show an interesting cultural difference how in jp the sports thing would have characterized him as "obedient"
In the proposal he was supposed to be a good student and that did make it into the Manga. (consider the "exam battle plans" scene)
But in the anime that isn't explicitly stated and the one time it's mentioned in the show is when Misato says he needs to get his grades up in ep 11, so the impression that sticks is of him not being so good at school.(rather than, as it may have been intended, a temporary slump due to piloting-related stress and missing a week of school in both eps 4 and 9)
Though the angle of Touji not being as good at his hobby & his fake confidence denial somewhat crumbling when he picked as a pilot could have been an interesting character beat.
In the final conversation its more like Shinji is the timid best friend to two stock shonen protagonists. Touji is the tough protective one & Kensuke is the eager idealistic guy (a lot like Jean from Nadia) & on the face look more like hero archetypes.
But by twist of fate Shinji is the chosen one, whereas Kensuke does not get picked & Touji gets no heroic beginner's luck & gets wrecked in his first mission.
Also Shinji being oblivious to the fangirls reinforces the whole theme that is later explicitly spelled out in EoTV that he's just not used to being treated positively & shooting himself in the foot through negative expectations. If one of them confessed to him he would probably have quickly destroyed her interest by becoming overwhelmed & stammering nervously, or he would have shot her down thinking she only wants him cause he's a pilot & would quickly lose interest if she knew "his real self".