Gavriel Helm '19 Recruiting Profile

My name is Gavriel Daniel Helm. I attend De Smet Jesuit High School in St. Louis, Missouri (Class 2019). De Smet is a Division 6A school and member of the competitive Metro Catholic Conference (MCC) and is a college prep high school with very high academics and championship caliber football and lacrosse programs. 2017 is my junior year. I have been a starting Linebacker (MLB and OLB) for the varsity team. My freshman and sophomore year I also played FB and plan to play both LB and FB again my senior year.  Additionally, I am on the special teams.  At the beginning of the 2017 season I was selected as a mentor for entering freshmen football players. In 2015/2016 I played two sports; football (LB and fullback) and Lacrosse (defender) and was a captain for both teams. Our football team went 7-2 with only two narrow losses.

I earned high honors for the first quarter of 2017 and was awarded the Scholar Athlete Award – “Minds in Motion” and I expect to do likewise for the semester. This past sophomore year I also earned high honors for both semesters and was awarded the Scholar Athlete Award – “Minds in Motion”. As a Freshman I also earned honors. De Smet’s grading scale is tough. An A+ is 98 – 100, A 93 – 97, B+ 90 – 92, B 85 – 89, C+ 82 – 84, C 78 – 81, D+ 75 – 77, D 70 – 74 and F – below 70. In Middle School I was also an honors student. I was selected to attend the Saint Louis University's Upward Bound program during the summer before my 9^th grade, earned the Christian Service Award and Gold Physical Fitness Award and was awarded from De Smet the Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S. J. Leadership and Services Scholarship Award. I have a strong interest in science curriculum, but not yet for sure what I want to study in college. My ultimate dream is to continue my studies and playing football and lacrosse through college.

While attending Catholic Schools I have grown in my Christian faith and gained valuable knowledge and skills in Science, English, Literature, Social Studies and Math. I am a volunteer server during Mass and have been involved with many service projects such as helping the Circle of Concern and Feed My People providing food to the poor, Special Olympics, working with special ed students, and many others.

My extra activities have included playing football as the starting Linebacker and Fullback and some Slot Receiver at De Smet. I was one of the few incoming De Smet Freshman to participate with the varsity in conditioning drills and 7 on 7 games. Earlier I played LB, defensive tackle, nose guard and some running back for the Chesterfield Football Association Bears - CFA (an elite select team). My coaches have always complimented me on my vision, quick feet, great body moment and technique. In fact Coach Cory Sauls of one of our rivals recently said, "We battled for 3 years and they were always epic, best LB on the field....great to see him successful at the next level". While attending the 2015 FBU Camp in Kansas City I emerged as a top defensive performer at linebacker. Al Popadines, Senior Sports Director wrote in his article, "Class of 2019 Helm jams receivers at the line of scrimmage well. He kept his head on a swivel the whole weekend and showed a good ability to stay with his assignment in man coverage". As a result of my performance I was invited for the 2nd year in a row to attend FBU's Top Gun event.

My coaches have used me as an example to others on proper technique. I am willing to play any position to help the team. I greatly admire the hard hitting style of LB play from Rohan Marley (the Rat) who played for the University of Miami Hurricanes and the way he attacked all over the field. I have been taking football skills and performance training at the Elite Football Academy going into my 5th year and have attended several football camps (Football University (FBU) Regional Camp where I received LB training from former Washington Redskin's LB - Kurt Gouveia, FBU Top Gun - Dublin, Ohio, University of Missouri, O-D Camp, and De Smet). Additionally, I have played in several 7 on 7 leagues. I was selected to be a member of the FBU Team St. Louis for 2014 at LB. Additionally, at a summer 2014 and 2015 Offense-Defense Camp I won the Top Performance Award as a Linebacker and fullback. I receive very high marks from the coaching staff for my powerful lead blocks. I earned two years in a row Youth All- American and an invitation to play in the Youth All-American Bowl in Orlando, Florida at the Citrus Bowl. I participated in Youth All-American week long activities, practices and two games each year. One game was played in the Citrus Bowl and the other at the University of Central Florida. In addition to post season play for FBU and O-D Football I was exclusively invited to the prestigious NUC Texas vs. the World Game week from February 13 - 16th.

During the summer 2016 I assisted our coaching staff with De Smet's Football Skills Camp for 4th - 8th graders. In addition to football, I love Lacrosse where I primarily played attacker during middle school (I hope to be another Jim Brown one day), but switched to defender in high school for De Smet. I play both spring (De Smet) and Summer Lacrosse (Shamrox) and participate in tournaments like Ohio State Tournament and Dicks Midwest Tournament. Starting in February 2015 I started weight lifting and conditioning at Gold's Gym under instruction from Personal Trainer, Jay Algiere. Other sports I played included baseball (6 yrs.), basketball (5 yrs.) and soccer (4 yrs.) I played both CYC and select soccer. I gave up soccer to play football in the 5th grade. My other activities have included scouts, camping, classical piano, guitar, Madden NFL 2015, paintball and art.