A Scout’s Journey

Blue

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Mar 19, 2019
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“My dad asked me, ‘Do you want to play college football? Is that something you want to do?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ So after that, it was everything I had to do to get there - we started doing 6 AM workouts in the mornings before school.”


Football and his future became a family affair.


“We had a highlight tape cut up of all my throws. I brought in VHS tapes and my stepmother would print labels at her office. I wrote a letter to every head coach saying who I am, what I am, what I do. I would sign every one of them by hand and we’d send them out in packets.”


He went to football camps, as many as he could - IU, Purdue, Michigan State, Iowa, Northern Illinois, Indiana State - big schools, small schools, Division I, Division II. He just wanted to play college football.


“IU wasn’t going to offer me. Purdue wasn’t going to offer me. Nobody was going to offer me. I think they were just going to wait to see what happened.”


His first offer came from an unlikely place.


“My first scholarship offer came from Bill Doba from Washington State University. His daughter married a basketball coach from Evansville, Indiana. This is how recruiting works - he was there on vacation visiting the head basketball coach for the other team who played against me and he told him he needed to take a look at me,” he said. “He watched my tape in Evansville and he called me that next week. Washington State offered me and the next day, IU came in and offered, and then Purdue.”


He chose Purdue. And after investing so much to help him get there, John Elliott made yet another sacrifice for his son.
 
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