'If someone gives me a chance I'll be ready.' Without fall game film, players looking for different ways to get recruited

Yorkville coach Dan McGuire believes that Luke Davies could be one of the better quarterbacks he's ever had.

There is only one problem.

Davies, a senior, doesn't have the varsity film to support McGuire's claim – or to put his name on college recruiters' radar.

Davies missed all of his junior season after medial patellofemoral ligament reconstruction surgery on his knee. A second curveball, the coronavirus pandemic, came this spring. That meant no fall football season in Illinois. No tape for Davies, and others like him, to gin up college interest.

Davies, like any good quarterback, called an audible to keep things moving.

A pupil of Steve Gregory at the Naperville-based Quarterback Farm since middle school, Davies has taped videos there recording him throwing the ball in workouts. On top of that, Davies has gone to Yorkville's high school field to record himself throwing different patterns to receivers, and sent them off to colleges.

"What it comes down to is schools like seeing it because they don't have varsity film," said Davies, a solid 6-foot-3, 208-pounder with a 4.44 GPA to boot who has offers from Loras, Ripon, Augustana and Concordia-Wisconsin. "I would have liked to play in the fall, but you got to do what you go to do. You can only control what you can control."

With the fall season washed out, high school seniors and juniors are indeed doing what they can to keep their hopes of playing in college alive. In some cases, they're getting creative in what they supply colleges. They're also optimistic of a spring season – and film – knowing that the timeline on their decision has had to be adjusted.

Oswego East senior linebacker Gianni Cammarata planned to commit by midway through the season, or shortly after. Now he's pegging the spring time for a choice. He has an offer from St. Xavier, and is also talking to Knox College and Northern Michigan.

"I am going to release midway through season film, hopefully that will get me some attention as well," Cammarata said.

To help his cause, Cammarata participated in a combine that Oswego East did over the summer. He has clips from it with his 40-yard dash times, broad jump and high jump, and running through drills. He's posted his bench max that he hit in quarantine and highlights from junior year on Twitter to try to get bites.

"You never know who's going to see it," Cammarata said.

Ironically, McGuire said he received more emails than ever before over the summer from college coaches asking about his players. He said that some college coaches are going off word of mouth, rather than just strictly game film.

Despite that earlier fact-finding, McGuire anticipates recruiting extending a lot later than normal, once coaches have an idea of what they need and the spots they have available after factoring in college seniors that might stick around for another year under new eligibility rules.

"I'm a firm believer that if you are good, coaches will find you," McGuire said. "The kids you feel for are the guys who were behind some good players last year, they have done everything right, but now they have to get creative to get eyes on them and let that do the talking for them."

Davies, who has five scholarship offers, is one of them. Fellow Yorkville senior Matt Maldonado, a converted soccer player who just started kicking last year, is another. McGuire thinks Maldonado could be one of the top four kickers Yorkville's ever had, but he doesn't have film as he sat last year behind Cole Riebe, now a freshman at Toledo.

Maldonado started doing the Kohl's Kicking Camps circuit, and is the sixth-ranked kicker in Illinois by Kohl's. But cost has prevented him from doing too many Kohl's camps.

So after talking to his dad, Maldonado decided to go to fields in Yorkville to make highlight videos of him kicking and punting.

He even brought out his soccer net to get extra height on the field goal kicks. He posts the videos, shot on his iPhone which he rests on a shoe, on Twitter and YouTube.

"It's not all that high tech, but it gets the point across," Maldonado said. "It's not like I'm a quarterback that you have to see read defenses and how I handle a defender coming at me. As long as I have videos of me kicking the ball, showing good form and a big leg, it works."

Oswego has 10 football players in the Class of 2021 who have expressed interest in playing at the next level. Two obstacles are the lack of fall tape, and the restrictions on who is allowed in the school building that prevent college coaches from coming in. Oswego did have contact days in the fall to showcase a little of what players can do.

"Obviously running drills against a bag is extremely different than Friday night, but the options for kids in Illinois are extremely limited due to the governor's decision to move football to the spring in Illinois," Oswego coach Brian Cooney said. "Division I coaches are calling about 2022 kids now. The conversations are still happening; a lot of what I'm giving them is more what I anticipate kids doing because I haven't had a chance to see them live on a Friday night."

One of Oswego's seniors, defensive back Joey DeMarco, is a kid Cooney believed was poised for a breakout season. DeMarco played in the box a lot last year as a strong safety and a linebacker on half the plays, but this year was set to play more of an over-the-top role.

DeMarco's been to a couple camps to get his name out there, the Lemming Prep Showcase and another one at Commissioners Park in Naperville. He hasn't videotaped himself lately, but said he probably should with his 40 time lowering.

"We all have to take this opportunity right now to get better for the spring," said DeMarco, who has visited North Park, Wisconsin-Whitewater and Central College in Iowa.

DeMarco's fellow senior, Carter Anderson, was Oswego's starting center last year. A little undersized, he didn't think after his first two years of high school he'd play in college – but with a 4.5 GPA and 1340 he has options and plans to study mechanical engineering.

Without college coaches being able to visit the school and Oswego's weight room, Anderson's face-to-face contact with recruiters is limited, but he keeps it up through Twitter, text messages and phone calls. He's sent out videos of him lifting, doing squats and benches, and has offers from Roosevelt, St. Ambrose and Olivet Nazarene.

"It's definitely been kind of a roller coaster of a year," Anderson said. "It's nice that I had junior year film to be able to use, that really would have been tough without it, I would have had nothing going into this year, but I played junior year at 210 and now I'm 240."

Yorkville's Dougie Burson can relate to the tale of his junior tape not telling the whole story.

Schools look for varsity film, but Burson as a junior played out of position at fullback with two running backs ahead of him on the depth chart. He does have film from his sophomore year, when he scored 25 touchdowns.

He also went to a camp at Grand View University to get a video out that included his 40 time and work with drills.

"Obviously without the senior game film it is hard, but me and a bunch of my teammates and buddies go out to throw, do 7-on-7s, and try to get film of that," said Burson, who has offers from North Central, Wartburg, Augustana, Roosevelt, Concordia-Wisconsin and St. Ambrose. "Without COVID I probably would have committed earlier."

Davies, like his teammate, has seen his timetable change because of COVID. He's grown an inch or two since last year, and put on 20 pounds, so looks forward to adding some senior film this spring to attract more interest.

Maldonado, likewise, has attracted Division II and Division III interest, but is holding off for more. He's talked to Western Illinois about a potential walk-on spot.

"The goal for me is to follow in Cole Riebe's footsteps and land a D1 offer," Maldonado said. "I know what I'm capable of. The game film is lacking, but if someone gives me a chance I'll be ready."