There are over 1 million high school football players every year.\u00a0 I am sure you have heard that stat before.\u00a0 A good majority of those 1 million would love to play the sport at the college level.\u00a0 When you think of it that way you realize it is very difficult to stand out in the crowd when you are trying to capture a college’s attention.\u00a0 This task becomes even harder when you missed your entire junior season due to injury.\u00a0 We are going to take a look at some ways you can get on the colleges’ radar when you fall into this category.<\/p>\n
There’s no disputing that the junior year for a high school football player is the most important season of all.\u00a0 If you are at a solid program that is known to get colleges’ attention,\u00a0 it typically won’t be until your junior season that you either start or make a real significant impact on the team.\u00a0 It is also around this year that your puberty kicks in and you benefit from your athleticism.\u00a0 So to lose this important year to an injury can be catastrophic but not terminal.\u00a0 The road to your college football scholarship has taken a curve but you can get back on the straight path by doing these five important things.<\/p>\n
(1) Rehab<\/strong><\/p>\n First of all,\u00a0 you have to make sure that you are 100%.\u00a0 Rehab after an injury is hard.\u00a0 That is the reason why some athletes don’t come back like they were before.\u00a0 Rehabbing an ACL or achilles tear will likely involve you working out in a way that you never have before.\u00a0 It is easy for your mind to start saying “I quit.”\u00a0 Of course you can’t quit,\u00a0 that memory will stay with you for a good portion of your life and you will be a guy that always has an excuse.\u00a0 So attack the rehab with the utmost determination.\u00a0 If nothing else,\u00a0 it will build character and mental strength that can be used later on in life.\u00a0 Practically speaking,\u00a0 a good rehab can strengthen an athlete in areas he was weak in before and bring him back as a better version of himself.<\/p>\n (2) Weight Room<\/strong><\/p>\n There is rehab and there is the weight room.\u00a0 They may seem similar but they are indeed different.\u00a0 There is the stuff you will do specifically with the trainer in charge of your rehab and then there are the things your weight training coach or you yourself will strive to do.\u00a0 As you progress in your rehab and can be more active,\u00a0 you should be building yourself up in the weight room. You can’t run most likely due to your injury.\u00a0 Fill that “can’t run” time up with getting bigger and stronger.\u00a0 This will give you the strength to be a faster athlete when you can run again and it will have you looking the part when college coaches start coming around.\u00a0 I have seen guys who couldn’t participate in practice and are in street clothes get love from college coaches at a spring game.\u00a0 This happened simply because their traps were climbing out of the hole in their T-shirt.\u00a0 True story.<\/p>\n (3) Attend Camps in the Summer<\/strong><\/p>\n You have no junior film so you have to show them something.\u00a0 You are going to do that when you appear in person in camp and dominate.\u00a0 During the course of watching the junior season from the sidelines and having to go through the pain of rehab,\u00a0 you should be plenty motivated.\u00a0 Time to take out your frustrations on the unsuspecting camp goer.\u00a0 \u00a0Hey it’s a dog eat dog world and it’s time to show your chops.\u00a0 Hit as many camps as you can and work to impress.\u00a0 It’s ok to pick a few schools that may be deemed over your head too.\u00a0 See where you are and how you measure up.\u00a0 \u00a0Learn as much as possible at camp and take all feedback in a positive manner.\u00a0 Use it to mold yourself into the player you want to be in the final season on the prep gridiron.<\/p>\n (4) Sophomore Film<\/strong><\/p>\n Get your sophomore film together if you have not already done so.\u00a0 If you played as a sophomore,\u00a0 make the most of that film.\u00a0 Make that film great and by great I don’t mean adding special effects and music that the coaches will mute.\u00a0 I mean use it show what you can do.\u00a0 There is plenty on this blog about how to effectively put together a highlight video but to make a long story short,\u00a0 put your best plays first and try to show all of your talents within the first minute.\u00a0 Have something to show a coach if you have it.<\/p>\n (5) Make A Small School List<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes,\u00a0 everyone wants to go to a Top 2o football program,\u00a0 receive a NIL deal and pick hat off of the table on signing day.\u00a0 Get yourself out of that thinking.\u00a0 You are playing to win the game.\u00a0 Get on your small school grind.\u00a0 Depending on your talent level,\u00a0 start getting a list together of smaller FBS programs along with FCS + some Division II schools.\u00a0 Put your ego aside and don’t worry about what the next man is doing.\u00a0 Just because you aren’t going to a major football power doesn’t mean you aren’t going to be a major football player.\u00a0 You are building for your future.\u00a0 Secure the attention of these schools.\u00a0 Let them know your situation and what you have been doing to reach your potential.\u00a0 They will admire your work ethic,\u00a0 tenacity and determination.\u00a0 Perhaps you go out on the field your senior year and go crazy.\u00a0 Maybe the big boys come looking for you but I would not bank on it.\u00a0 Have the lower level schools as an insurance policy.\u00a0 \u00a0Teenagers tend not to think about the future.\u00a0 When it comes to this right here,\u00a0 don’t think like a teenager.\u00a0 Think like…(gulp) your parents.<\/p>\n This setback you suffered can be a big blessing for you depending on how you treat it.\u00a0 In your young life it may be your first experience into what all adults know and that is life will deal you a couple of bad hands.\u00a0 Wouldn’t it be great for you to come out of the blocks in the race of life with a win?\u00a0 Follow these steps and that’s just what you’ll do even if you don’t end up with a college football scholarship in the end.\u00a0 You would have experienced high value training for this thing we call life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are over 1 million high school football players every year.\u00a0 I am sure you have heard that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":4418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[995],"tags":[997,1089,1185,1186,822,1188,1187],"class_list":["post-4417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recruiting-tips","tag-camps","tag-football-scholarships","tag-injured","tag-junior-year","tag-offers","tag-rehab","tag-weights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417","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=4417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}