Springville's Ball Selects Hobart

Dave Deluca of the Springville Journal (WNY) reported last week that Springville-Griffith Institute's SR O/DL Brandon Ball will attend and play football at Hobart this fall. A link to the article can be found here.

Ball is an interesting story in that he played his SR season at only 16 years old, meaning he'll most likely be the youngest player on the Statesmen roster this fall. Still, it sounds like Brandon is a mature young man. He was elected Captain by his teammates and he also has the physical stats, standing 6' 2" and weighing 240 lbs. All the above look and sound good as a potential DE/DL (and he probably isn't finished growing yet).

His HC Rob Valenti (pictured below with Ball), describes Brandon as a "leader by example." Valenti, although he didn't graduate from Hobart, played for the Statesmen in 2001. That familarity had to have helped during the recruiting process.

Ball reportedly looked at Ithaca and Alfred as well as upper Division schools, such as the University of Buffalo (which offered walk on opportunities). Although the article has several typos (e.g., not getting Hobart HC Mike Cragg's last name correct) and other inaccuracies (e.g., HWS doesn't offer a degree in "athletic training", but it sure does graduate a lot of pre-med kids), it does a nice job of emphasizing Ball's leadership and accomplishments on the gridiron.

Please join me in welcoming Brandon to the Hobart Football Family!

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!