Top Middle School players flock to Showcase Football Opportunity
Cerritos, CA – Middle school football opportunities are few and far between but there’s a new event on the rise and players from all over the Country are flocking to Showcase Football.
The day of only high school juniors and seniors being the only athletes recruited have come and gone. Underclassmen, or the next wave of talented athletes are claiming offers from top universities across the Country. The concept being, the earlier you offer an elite athlete player the stronger connection a coach can build and hopefully land the 4-star or 5-star on National Signing Day. Freshmen and sophomores have collections of offers from blue blood programs throughout college football but the trend doesn’t stop there. In basketball, offering a scholarship to a middle school athlete is considered normal. That strategy has crossed over to football and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
Providing a platform for top Middle school football players is a new event called Showcase Football. A fusion of the NFL Combine and OTAs (organized team activities), athletes from across the Country have been drawn to the event created, designed and ran by the Nation’s top high school scout/evaluator, Keith Miller. Top 2025 QB Owen Lansu from Naperville, Illinois caught the attention of Miller via twitter videos and was contacted by the scout regarding a chance to compete at Showcase Football, “coach Keith challenged me. I’m all in.” Players seem to be drawn to the energy of the event, it’s dynamic creator and the opportunity to show off their talents to national scouts, media and well-connected coaches -– in hopes of a college scholarship offer. Miller said, “I use to frown at middle school offers as if coaches couldn’t wait until a kid got on a varsity field but now I understand the importance of getting on these athletes early as possible. Guys like Trevor Lawrence, DeShaun Watson and Jayden Daniels are program changers. They have the future of some coach’s job in their hands. We’re talking $75 million dollars in Jimbo Fisher’s case when he signed Jameis Winston and went on to win a national title at Florida State.” There’s no doubt recruiters will have one eye or the juniors and seniors but there’s a good chance their second eye will be on the next crop of game chargers starting at the middle school level.
