Louisville, Kentucky has some of the best high school football teams around, and with good teams, elite players are sure to follow.
Trinity High School is no different. In fact, they may be the premiere team in the Louisville area.
With a stellar 2013 class, coaches have been piling into Trinity to witness the talent it presents.
While junior John Michael Heile hasn’t received a ton of attention from prestigious schools, he has a different way of looking at things: he is the definition of a true student-athlete.
Heile, a member of the Class of 2012, is receiving interest from several Ivy League schools, including Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Brown, and even Vanderbilt, another school known for its academics.
But his first offer last week came from Columbia.
“It feels really good to get the first one out of the way,” he said thankfully. “And with it being such an outstanding prestigious academic institution, it makes the feeling even better.”
Typically, it takes coaches three or four days to diagnose a player’s film and make decisions as to whether to continue the recruitment or lay off for a little bit; with Heile, that wasn’t the case.
“Within a couple of hours of the coaches reviewing my tape, they offered me a scholarship. They told me I would be a great addition immediately.”
Now, the intelligent athlete is focused on improving his ACT score and getting better on the football field.
Heile had an unfortunate event on his previous ACT test, as he came down with the flu the day of the test; however, he pushed through his sickness and scored better than most average students. But he still sees room for improvement.
“I made better on some pre-tests I took, so I think I can do better when my next test comes around,” he said with confidence.
It’s the same way on the football field. Because of his will to improve, it will be hard for him to take visits and go to camps during the summer.
“At Trinity, we have rigorous workouts in the summer six out of seven days of the week. With that, I’m not sure what I will be able to do with my schedule,” Heile explained.
But he admits he loves the way of life and football at Trinity.
“It’s tough, but I love the way the program is run,” he said enthusiastically. “The competition for positions are great. The coaches never give someone a safe starting position, and it makes everyone work harder and harder toward their potential.”
He also adores the schedule he and his teammates will take on next year, which includes only three in-state games, the others traveling to elite high schools in the Ohio and Tennessee areas.
He can’t put together a specific list yet, but he knows Columbia and Brown are coming after him the hardest.
Heile will continue to oppose rushing defensive players that are hungry for his star quarterback, Travis Wright, a Class of 2013 member.
While Kentucky and Louisville aren’t recruiting Heile the hardest, he has found the appropriate place for him at Trinity High School and getting looked at by Ivy League schools.
“I’m proud of being smart,” he said. “I don’t mind seeing it carry over to college, either.”
Either way, one college is going to get one smart kid, as well as a great teammate.
Keep an eye out for John Michael and Trinity as they make their way towards a state championship in 2011.
Follow Garrett Tucker on Twitter [URL=”http://twitter.com/GTuckersports”]@GTuckersports[/URL] for more info on Kentucky recruiting.
