J.J. (Joseph John) Yu-Robinson '20 Recruiting Profile

I am a 5’10” safety from Raleigh, NC. I have two sports,  karate and football.  When not playing football,  I train and compete in karate at an elite level 9-12 months a year.  I have been training karate since age 4 at Triangle's Best Karate, a studio where we train ~40 athletes each year for national level competition.  I teach and coach the junior athletes ages 8-12 three days a week and design conditioning drills.  Since I joined the AAU Karate traveling national team at age 13, I have competed internationally in Ireland, Morocco, Scotland, Hungary, and Slovakia and won at gold in sparring (2016), a bronze (2018) and a bronze (2019) at the World Championships in a field of 145 boys. I have a record of 57 wins, 5 losses in the last 3 years at the national or international level. Currently, I am the men's national champion in both the junior and senior divisions.  In karate, the one who wins is “Pound for pound, the person who hits the hardest wins.”

With Pop Warner football, I was fortunate to play linebacker for four years with a team who never lost a game except in post-season play.  We had a head coach who played at UNC, plenty of talent among the players, and a close group of families.  My parents made sure I was first to arrive and last to leave every single practice and game, even when I had a sprained ankle.  At Martin Middle School, as a sixth grader not permitted to play, I managed the middle school football team.  Contrary to Pop Warner, Martin had lost EVERY game for five years straight before my Pop Warner buddies and I arrived. In seventh grade, I won the MVP award.  In eighth grade, I led the conference in number of sacks and won the Coach’s Award. Within three seasons, Martin became conference champs and had not lost a single game.

I currently play on the Needham Broughton High School varsity football team, which also had not won a single game in six years before my freshman year.  In my freshman year, the school hired Coach Chris Dawson, a former Broughton graduate, as Head Coach.  His mission, “To change the world by teaching boys to be good men” is realized through lots of conditioning, sticking up for our teammates, fundraising for players with no funds to play, and character lessons every week.  I attended EVERY practice and demonstrated strong conditioning and agility, yet I struggled to get game time with 77 players on the team. No one was cut. 

When I was sophomore, I led the JV squad in number of touchdowns as a wide receiver. During spring training my sophomore year, Coach Dawson  challenged the team to gain one pound per week to increase our average mass.  However, I was also training  in karate at the same time for the International High School Olympics and the WUKF World Karate Championship in Scotland.  I actually lost weight during that time, with double practices and weight training, because I wasn’t eating enough.  After Worlds, I gained 16 pounds and grew one inch in height in 2018.  I learned to manage my calorie and protein intake, with no PEDs and no sugar.  I am enjoy being "Pound for pound, the person who hits the hardest wins."

Early in football training my junior year,  the defensive coordinator spotted me in practice hitting hard and recruited me as a safety,  so I went back to my defense roots.  I have played defense and special teams on varsity.  During my senior football season, I broke two bones in my foot  during the third regular season game, and had to sit out five games. During my 'injury' time, I continued to lift weights and attend every practice and game, and coaching my teammates on ways to improve our plays. I returned for the final two games of the season and won the Model Teammate Award.  

I have a 3.65 weighted GPA and an overall 24 on the ACT taken June 2019.  I have taken 1-2 AP classes and 4 honors classes each year in high school.  I am a member of Broughton’s Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management Academy and had an internship with the AAU Junior Olympic Games and the Greensboro Sports Foundation for two weeks in the summer of 2019. I complete an average of 75 hours of community service each year by volunteering for school clean-ups, administering sports events in Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida, and teaching and coaching younger kids in karate.  I also worked 12 hours each weekend at a local grocery store on weekends after football video review. 

I am looking for a university with high academic standards and programs; I am currently interested in business, government, leadership, and psychology classes.   I believe I not only have the talent to compete for a college team, but the character, work ethic, and leadership skills to contribute to student life and the athletic program.

NCAA ID#-1908652746