Dion Earls, Jr. '15 Recruiting Profile

          A day in a life with me is hard in my city. With such hard times and crime, you have to have someone who has influenced your life or is influencing your life. I happen to have three people: my father, my mother, and my coach Dante Culbreath. I chose these three people because I have such great respect for them all by the motivation they instilled in me. My father has done things with his life that are great. When I was younger he made a couple of bad decisions but as I got older, he changed his life around. Now he has his own million dollar company with my uncle. My mother does a lot for me even when i don't need it. She always makes sure I'm doing the right thing, with the right people, in the right place. She does everything to the max and that’s where I believe I got some of my determination from. My coach, Dante Culbreath, someone who has all the faith in the world in me. He is one coach I really respect (including my other coach Dennis Butler), they never told me to give up on anything. Baseball coaches don't want me playing football at all, but Coach Dante told me don't give it up and watch the success you will have. Now I have options to play football or/and baseball in college for free. These three people can be looked up to by others because they are just positive people and that’s what you want to surround yourself with.

            At the beginning of my life, I learned early that you have to use criticism as your motivation. I have been told I was too small for everything. People don't understand that they have never send me play (football or baseball) before, but still they decide to criticize me. I want to just prove my supporters right and haters wrong. In the case of entering college, the teachers might not know me, but when given the opportunity, I will show myself to be the determined and hardworking student-athlete I am.

            As of now, I am ahead of most people my age. I can compete at a high level, whether it's in the classroom or on the field. I am not just an athlete, I am also a student. I started my education at a classical school, moving to a math and science academy for junior high, and starting my senior year off needing just one credit to graduate. I maintain A's and B's, which takes a lot of hard work to do. To get to the next level (college) I have to separate myself from other individuals. Yes, it's easy to be just a student or just an athlete; however, it's more challenging being a student-athlete.

            I can see a bright future for myself. If I stay on track by going to school, practice, and making my best even better. There's no way I can't be successful with my life goals. My dreams are to become a professional athlete, whether it is football or baseball. If that doesn’t go as planned, my back up plan will be in physical therapy or sports management. I know to become a successful individual, you have to think ahead and have goals, I say having more than one plan is thinking ahead. I like sports management as one of my choices because I have good knowledge about multiple sports, I acquired by watching them and being around them all the time physically.