Mike Preston: Former New Town multi-sport star Brandon James ready to turn the corner at Maryland

If College of Maryland football mentor Mike Locksley has not read about Brandon James, he will before long. James may even knock on Lockley’s office doorway and introduce himself.

Approximately a thirty day period back, James was granted a full scholarship to operate monitor and subject at Maryland. The coronavirus pandemic and a hamstring injury forced him to miss out on his closing two several years of eligibility at Morgan Point out, but the Terps designed him an offer, alongside with Nebraska and Louisville, when he entered the NCAA transfer portal.

James hardly ever played significant school soccer, but he is particularly athletic. He can stroll into pretty much any basketball gym, split some ankles and pump in about 20 points. At New City Higher University in Owings Mills, he played stage guard for the basketball team and averaged just about six targets as a lacrosse midfielder ahead of he concentrated only on indoor and outdoor observe as a senior.

Oh, and right before he gave up those other athletics, he did perform receiver for the soccer crew for a day or two until his monitor coach, Jordan Davis, suggested him not to take part. But even immediately after viewing just one exercise, assistant football coaches from Maryland and Morgan Point out received him out of course to converse about playing for their plans.

“Brandon was always a freak athlete who could perform any sport he chose to participate in and excel,” stated New City athletic director Preston Waters, a previous starting up cornerback at West Virginia. “He usually had that type of speed which transferred from activity to sport, which eventually gave him an advantage. With his IQ, you just had to put him in a place in which he could realize success.

“We’ve all recognized men and women with straight-forward velocity, but when you put them in pads, it’s like they are jogging in quicksand. I consider he could be a single heck of a receiver.”

But let’s not jump so considerably ahead.

At New City, he was the condition indoor champion in the 300 and 500 meters and gained state out of doors titles in the 200 and 400. He has a particular very best of 10.5 seconds in the 100, 21.1 seconds in the 200 and 47.8 seconds in the 400. The pandemic and a prolonged hamstring/knee injury shortened his profession at Morgan, which ended Saturday at graduation with a bachelor of science diploma in marketing and advertising, but Maryland will enable him to earn a further degree in psychology.

In accordance to James, 22, it was just time to leave Morgan.

“The head coach and I have been getting some variations, and Maryland, mainly because it is a larger school with a lot more amenities and sources, would allow for additional alternatives,” he claimed. “Previously, I by no means genuinely imagined I experienced a prospect to completely recover myself, but now I am jogging, lifting and sprinting without having any complications or soreness.

“When Maryland very first started recruiting me, they came a little smooth mainly because I was variety of an at-possibility athlete. But I went to the NCAA Regional Championships when I was a freshman [at Morgan], so they know I can do it.”

But it was not always about situations and distances. Terps assistant monitor coach Garfield Ellenwood beloved James’ perspective.

“He had operate some great instances out of higher university, and I felt like there was more in the tank wherever he could definitely make improvements to,” Ellenwood claimed. “Once I had a dialogue with him, I really liked him. He experienced a self confidence about him that you glimpse for in sprinters. I observed a great deal of myself in him, realized this was my form of athlete.”

It is referred to as getting cocky.

Some may possibly connect with it self esteem, but James goes about the line. But which is part of what of what makes him profitable. Whilst taking part in lacrosse at New City, James in no way came off the area. He was element of a dying breed in the activity, a two-way midfielder who played both offense and protection. The only time he rested was when he was moved to assault.

“I just obtained bored with it,” James claimed when requested why he stopped taking part in lacrosse. “In lacrosse, you have to regulate your speed, you don’t have to go comprehensive velocity all the time. I generally knew that I was rapid, but I didn’t know I was that rapidly.”

Request James about his upcoming goals, and he spits them out without the need of any hesitation.

“I want to go pro in observe, go to the NFL, get a gold in the Olympics, in the 200-meter dash,” he stated. “When I occur out in 2024, it will be time for the up coming Olympics, and I want to be prepared for it.”

Ellenwood explained the 2024 Olympics in Paris are a probability.

“With his confidence and track record, anything at all is attainable,” Ellenwood said. “I assume a great deal of athletes, probably not the ‘A’ [level] kid, but that ‘B’ or ‘C’ child, have that ‘A’ push and want to build, then the Olympics is a risk, so I cannot say he can not be the future.”

James was not normally so aim-pushed, but acknowledges his father, Glenn, retained factors in perspective and motivated him. If his father hadn’t instilled the self-confidence, he wouldn’t have been ready to perform many sports activities.

Turning into so goal-oriented did not kick in till his senior yr, which is why James goes back again to New Town to communicate to athletes about operating tricky.

“I notify them the method, and you just just can’t be regular,” he stated. “Everybody needs to go to a Division I college or university, but they never always want to set in the time and work. There have been situations when I could get lazy, but none of the scholarships and the accolades would have come if I have been not keen to do the get the job done, which I did in my senior yr.

“Hard do the job is the uncomplicated component now. Willpower, that is really almost nothing any more.”

That willpower is what James is hoping will get him to a pro observe occupation, the Olympics and the NFL. He mentioned he just lately posted a 38-inch vertical leap and a broad bounce of 11 feet, 1 inch without having training. In comparison, college soccer players invest months planning for the NFL scouting merge. For example, Ravens rookie cornerback Damarion Williams, a fourth-round draft decide on out of Houston, had a 34.5-inch vertical leap and a wide jump of 11-8.

Rookie working back Tyler Badie, a sixth-round select from Missouri, recorded a vertical leap of 33.5 and broad jump of 12-1.

It is hugely unlikely Maryland’s keep track of officials would ever let James to perform football as a receiver or a kick returner, but it would not be astonishing if the 6-foot, 160-pound James had some style of NFL professional day, primarily if participates in the Olympics.

“He has constantly been an athletic freak who can do whatsoever he wished,” Waters said.