Austin Brannen '21 Recruiting Profile

My family has been a great support of my education and sports progress. They are always there to assist and provide mentoring and appropriate role modeling; sacrificing their personal time and income to ensure I reach my personal, academic and eventually professional goals. My strong work ethics and dedication to both my education and athleticism has been instilled in me from an early age by my family.  College has always been in my own personal goals and the goals my family set forth for me early in my life.       

Sports began for me when I was 3 years of age to include flag football and T-Ball.  At the age of 5 I began playing tackle football and enjoyed the intense competition and physicality of the sport.  Although baseball was a part of my childhood, I was drawn exclusively to tackle football at the age of 12 years. 

At a young age (perhaps 6 or 7) I had to “play up” with the older youth due to my body size and weight.  I feel like this opportunity to compete with more mature and experienced players has afforded me the opportunity to grow and learn.  My thought is that the increased competition at the younger age has advanced my abilities athletically and matured my abilities at a quick rate.

Football provided me the ultimate ability to maintain my physical goals and growth to include working out, lifting weights and to grow within the arena of football and the competition.  As I grew and improved my skills as a part of a team sport I realized my abilities to lead, read and become a true “part” of the team.

As a junior in high school my goal is to ensure my choices of classes and the grades I make are used to increase my education.  Ultimately, I want to go to college and maintain the strict grades and grade point I need to ensure I have the opportunity to continue my education and my love of sports. 

I am driven to continue to learn and grow in both my academic abilities and my athletics.  Again, I have found myself as a leader of the defensive and offensive side of the team and also as a mentor for the entire team.  I feel this is a natural area of my personality and the coaches I have had over the years have recognized this trait and worked to hone my skills.