DAVE FAVILA | Staff Writer
RAYMONDVILLE — When the 2015-16 school year begins next month, Ramon Juarez III will enter Raymondville High School as one of its many incoming freshmen.
But unlike most freshmen, who tend to fade into the background so as not to become senior fodder, Juarez, 14, is looking to make an immediate name for himself by making the varsity football team.
Playing both tailback and linebacker, Juarez said he hopes to enter high school this fall and immediately help the Bearkats’ win under the Friday night lights.
“That’s my main goal. To make varsity as a freshman and help the team out all I can. That’s the dream,” Juarez said.
And while most freshmen can only dream of making the cut at such an early stage of their high school careers, Juarez has the athletic chops to make his dream a reality. After all, he’s been turning heads since he was a seventh-grader at Myra Green Middle School. That’s when Dee Jenkins, a scout with Football University first saw him and invited him to attend one of the organization’s camps.
Football University (FBU) is a national training camp for players who are serious about improving their football skills. Participants have a chance to train under the guidance of more than 125 current and former NFL players and coaches.
This past April Juarez attended an FBU camp in San Antonio and preformed so well that he was invited to attend FBU’s Top Gun Showcase last week (July 20-22) in Dublin, Ohio, where he joined 700 of the nation’s top football athletes.
“For three days I went up against some of the best players in the entire country,” Juarez said. “It was really tough, but I did well and I’m happy I got to be part of it.”
Coaches at the Top Gun camp included Jeff Rutledge, former quarterbacks coach for the Arizona Cardinals, as well as offensive line coach Jim McNally, who spent almost 30 years in the NFL and 15 years at the college level.
The Bearkats officially begin two-a-days this coming Monday and Juarez said he’s ready to go.
And while he wouldn’t mind playing iron man football, he said that he would prefer to play linebacker if he his is forced to choose a single position.
“I like to hit people,” he said. “But I just want to do whatever I can to help the team.”