Lawrence Brown planned to be busy this summer.
After watching many of his teammates from the past two New Hope High School football teams realize dreams to play college football, Brown decided he was going to do his best to attract attention so he could reach that goal, too.
June has just started and Brown already has made impressive headway.
The 6-foot-5, 235-pound tight end returned Monday to Lowndes County after spending four days in Marietta, Ga., at USA Football”s 2012 U.S. Under-19 National Team Trials.
The event feature nearly 200 high school football players from 32 states. The players showcased their skills in hopes of earning spots on Team USA, which will face a World Team made up of high school-aged players from four continents next February.
The trials featured individual position drills, one-on-one, and seven-on-seven situations. In addition to the opportunity to be selected for Team USA, USA Football provided parents and athletes off-the-field developmental sessions. Speakers will address leadership and character-development topics as well as a seminar to help families manage the college recruiting process.
“It was very competitive,” Brown said. “There were some of the best players in the country there, and I learned a lot from it.”
Brown had 15 catches for 136 yards and three touchdowns in 11 games last season for New Hope (8-5). He said he learned how to run pass routes more efficiently and techniques on how to catch the football. He said the tight ends spent portions of the trials working with the wide receivers.
Brown said he had yet to receive a written evaluation of his performance at the trials, but he feels he stacked up well against his peers.
“I think I did pretty good,” said Brown, who learned of his invitation to the trials in March. “I could have done better.”
Brown”s work this summer is designed to help him accomplish that goal. He attended a football camp in Birmingham, Ala., from May 6-8. He then attended a Nike training camp on May 21 at Ohio State. He capitalized on the timing of that event to hook up with former Ohio State sprinter Jim Glasco, a friend of uncle”s. He spent six days in Ohio working on his explosion and his speed.
“It helped me a lot,” Brown said. “I have seen a tremendous increase in my speed.”
Brown will travel Friday to the University of Memphis to attend that school”s football camp. Memphis is one of a handful of local schools that are interested in Brown. He said he has received a scholarship offer from Memphis and that Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham all have contacted him. He said he hopes to attend football camps at Ole Miss and MSU later this summer.
To parlay that interest into a solid commitment, Brown said he plans to work hard in the offseason ready to take on a bigger role.
“I am just trying to be a great leader for the team,” said Brown, who in January attended the U.S. Army All-American Bowl National Combine in San Antonio, Texas. “I am willing to take whatever role that it takes to help our team get better.”
New Hope High football coach Michael Bradley said the exposure Brown has received this year led to his being selected to participate at the U.S. trials. He said he hasn”t received any feedback about Brown”s efforts at the trials, but he said he is excited about the progress Brown continues to make.
“He has a wealth of potential he has to reach, and he can reach,” Bradley said. “He just has to believe in himself and work hard on improving every day. If he does that he has an opportunity to be as good as he wants to be.”
“He has all the physical tools. He is big, he has good feet, and he is athletic. We just have to work on the things he can work on, like getting stronger and working on the finer points.”
Jim Farrell, the football coach at Buffalo Grove High in Buffalo Grove, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, worked with Brown at the U.S. trials. A former football player at Western Illinois, Farrell signed as a free agent with the NFL”s Chicago Bears in 1988 and played Arena League Football with the Grand Rapids Rampage.
Farrell was impressed with Brown”s showing at the trials, and said he envisions Brown being a load to handle coming off the line in 2011.
“He is a great young man as well as a good football player,” Farrell said. “Those things will help him in the recruiting process. He is a very coachable kid. He really worked hard.”
Farrell anticipates Brown will learn if he has been selected to the team in one to three months. He said all of the kids who were invited to participate are players any college coach would love to have in their program because they are quality players and good students.
Brown, who has a grade-point average well above 3.0, fits into both categories.
“Some of the best kids around the country were there, so even when someone is holding his own they”re doing pretty darned good,” Farrell said. “(Brown) has a great, solid start to work from. Now he is going to continue to work hard and get better. I am sure he is going to be playing major Division I college football.”
That projection fits right into Brown”s plans.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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