Area players going post-grad route at Feltrim Academy
Skyline bunch, Fairview DB finding new way to achieve goal Golfer had also been dealing with bad back
There’s no it.
2020 was a terribly unfortunate time to be a high school senior athlete with aspirations to play college sports.
Between extended dead periods, extensions of eligibility for current college players, decreased budgets for collegiate athletic programs, limited numbers of games – and therefore less film — by which to show what they can do, and so many other factors, the deck has been stacked against high school athletes accomplishing next-level goals.
In the face of all those things, several local football players are taking a different route to keep chasing the dream.
Skyline seniors Oscar Aranday, Chase Silva, Nick Peterson and Grayden Bridwell, and Fairview senior Gray Villarreal have all committed to play for Feltrim Academy, a postgrad prep school in Haines City, Fla., next fall. The move will allow them to continue playing football in search of scholarship offers — without losing college eligibility — and reclassify as members of the 2022 recruiting class.
“With everything going on right now in the college football world, it makes a lot of sense for kids to go the prep school route, especially guys who don’t have offers,” Villarreal said. “I heard Chase was going there and that was a big deal to me because he even had a couple options. I’ve gotten to know Chase pretty well and after talking it over, going to Feltrim seemed like a good opportunity to build up some experiences sugarcoating and some film.”
Silva, a quarterback who threw for 6,308 yards and 72 touchdowns in his Skyline career, indeed had a Division-i offer on the table. But the vast majority of players, even ones who would have options at least at the Division-ii, NAIA or JUCO levels in a normal year, have found themselves with little to nothing at the end of their senior years.
“Originally, we were all going to try our luck as walk-ons or take what little money we can get to go somewhere smaller,” Aranday said. “There’s way more money and opportunity in the Class of 2022, so we got to talking and decided we’d try to find a better opportunity at Feltrim.”
Post-grad programs for basketball and some other sports have been established for some time, but similar academies for football have been increasing in number since the global pandemic began devastating the high school and college football landscape. There’s a good chance this trend could continue, as many people in the recruiting world expect the COVID-19 pandemic to have a trickle-down effect on the 2022 class as well.
This will be Feltrim’s first season with a football program, and the inaugural class already includes commits from Colorado, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Florida.
Repor ting in July and leaving after the football season and semester end a week or so into December, Feltrim football players will have a daily schedule and structure similar to what they would experience as a collegiate athlete. They will attend a community college and will earn some college credit, but will take few enough courses to avoid starting their eligibility clock.
Feltrim head coach Mark Deas, who played at the University of Georgia, said the goal is to use a combination of exposure, film and the school’s recruiting network to have players enrolled in a four-year school by Januar y.
“Colorado isn’t the only state that’s going through it,” Deas said. “There are a lot of kids around the nation struggling with their recruiting, especially this class. My biggest purpose being a coach is helping kids reach their goal and have the opportunity of a lifetime that I had. The whole idea of being a collegiate athlete is something that’s one of a kind and a good oppor tunity to be able to play, build a post-grad network and get an education.”
Several months ago, Silva, Aranday, Villarreal and Bridwell were playing high school football in Colorado. A few months from now, they will be attending at a post-grad academy in Florida that is a member of the National Post Grad Athletic Association and plays in the Gulf Coast Post Grad Conference. The post-grad route is an uncommon extra step in the recruiting process, but the ultimate goal for these four remains the same: to be a scholarship member of a college football program a few months after that.
“Whatever said. it takes,”
Villarreal
The PGA Tour without Tiger Woods was always inevitable purely because of age. His shattered right leg from his SUV flipping down a hill on a sweeping road through coastal Los Angeles suburbs only brings that closer.
Golf wasn’t ready Wednesday to contemplate the future of its biggest star after the 10th and most complicated surgery on the 45-year-old Woods. There was more relief that he was alive.
“Listen, when Tiger wants to talk about golf, we’ll talk about golf,” Commissioner Jay Monahan said at the World Golf Championship in Florida. “When you’re going to overcome what he needs to overcome, I think the love of all of our players and everybody out here, it’s going to come forward in a big way and across the entire sporting world.
“I think he’ll feel that energy and I think that’s what we should all focus on.”
Woods made it clear what he faces with an update posted early Wednesday to social media by his team that outlined
BRADENTON, Fla. — Webb Simpson ran off three straight late birdies for a share of the lead Thursday in the Workday Championship. Dustin Johnson and Bryson Dechambeau ran up some big numbers.
Simpson matched Matthew Fitzpatrick with a 6-under 66 at The Concession in the World Golf Championships event moved from Mexico to Florida because of COVID19 circumstances.
Simpson birdied the par-4 15th and 16th and par-5 17th. The 2012 U.S. Open champion won twice last season and has seven PGA Tour victories.
Fitzpatrick had a bogeyfree round. The Englishman has six European Tour titles.
The top-ranked Johnson had two double bogeys in a 77. Dechambeau and Bubba Watson also shot 77, with Dechambeau making a triple bogey on the par-4 16th.
Brooks Koepka was a stroke out of the lead at 67 with Billy Horschel, Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner. the “long surgical procedure” at HarborUCLA Medical Center. Anish Mahajan, the chief medical officer, said Woods shattered tibia and fibula bones on his right leg in multiple locations. Those were stabilized by a rod in the tibia. He said a combination of screws and pins were used to stabilize additional injuries in the ankle and foot.
Four previous surgeries to repair ligaments were done on the left knee. This is the first major trauma to the right leg. Woods has had five surgeries on his lower back in the last seven years. The most recent was in December, a microdiscectomy to remove a pressurized disk that was pinching a nerve.
“I would say, unfortunately, it’s very, very unlikely that he returns to be a professional golfer after these injuries,” said Dr. Michael Gardner, chief of orthopedic trauma at Stanford Medical Center. “His age, his multiple back issues, this is going to be a ver y long road ahead if he chooses to attempt to return to his previous level of golfing.”
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ORLANDO, Fla. — Annika Sorenstam doesn’t remember golf being this difficult.
She still managed plenty of smiles when the most dominant player of her era played her first LPGA Tour event in more than 12 years. With one birdie and one bad hole, Sorenstam had a 3-over 75 in the LPGA Gainbridge on her home course at Lake Nona.
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Gainey, the 45-year-old from South Carolina who won his lone PGA Tour title in 2012, had a onestroke lead over local favorite Rafael Campos, Robert Garrigus, Taylor Pendrith, Lee Hodges, Greg Chalmers, Fabian Gomez and Brandon Wu.