{"id":2854,"date":"2015-02-05T10:08:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T15:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gridironstuds.com\/blog\/?p=2854"},"modified":"2015-02-05T10:08:49","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T15:08:49","slug":"dual-sport-16-athlete-justin-thomas-jr-looking-to-make-a-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/dual-sport-16-athlete-justin-thomas-jr-looking-to-make-a-hit\/","title":{"rendered":"Dual Sport ’16 Athlete Justin Thomas Jr. Looking to Make a Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By: Chad Wilson – Editor – Gridiron Studs Blog<\/strong>
\nTwitter: @GridironStuds<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was a time when a high school athlete was just that. \u00a0In the Fall he played football, in the Winter he played basketball, in the Spring he would run track and in the Summer he’d play baseball. \u00a0Those days are gone. \u00a0Now, \u00a0coaches want you in their sport year round and only the finest of athletes can convince a coach to play another sport and leave a coach’s eye sight for a couple of months. \u00a0Chaminade Madonna High School’s Justin Thomas Jr. is that guy.<\/p>\n

Thomas is one of only a few kids in South Florida that excel in both football and baseball. \u00a0On the football field, \u00a0the 6’1″ 185 lb. specimen throws his weight around like a FedEx worker tosses packages into his truck. \u00a0Thomas is that new breed of defensive back that has imposing size and athleticism. \u00a0He makes good use of it tracking down ball carriers and ramming into them full speed. \u00a0He also uses his speed to go get ball carriers that break free and believe they will find the end zone. \u00a0Thomas shows no fear on the gridiron and was one of the top players for the Lions during their 2014 season. \u00a0He will most certainly be the anchor of the defense in 2015 as the coaching staff finds a variety of ways to use his athletic talents.<\/p>\n

Thomas’ size makes him available to play in the box versus run heavy attacks and his instincts give him an edge when they drop him back to the hash or deep middle of the field. \u00a0When the situation calls for it, \u00a0Thomas can also line up in the slot and handle anything from a jittery WR to an athletic TE. \u00a0His skills make him a utility knife that can equalize the production of an offense’s best player. \u00a0His skill set will be part Kam Chancellor and part Aquib Talib. \u00a0He’s really what college programs are looking for these days. \u00a0In the football offseason, \u00a0Thomas takes his toughness to the baseball diamond where he excels at the sport. \u00a0His hand eye coordination, balance and quickness are all developed to the max on the diamond and pay off dividends for him when he returns to the gridiron. \u00a0Thomas is a throw back that has developed a wide range of skills by being a two sport athlete. \u00a0His attributes allow him to deliver the hard hits on the football field and the base hits on the diamond. \u00a0He’ll definitely be a recruiting hit for the college program that signs him in 2016.<\/p>\n

Check out Justin Thomas Jr.’s
\nJunior Season Highlight Video – Click Here<\/a><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Chad Wilson – Editor – Gridiron Studs Blog Twitter: @GridironStuds There was a time when a high<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-high-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}