Want to be a college quarterback? In Colorado, grade-schoolers put in reps with eyes on the future

PARKER — Nick Radi throws a football year-round. He has private training sessions, film study and conditioning drills to increase his odds to become a starting quarterback in high school.

He is 13 years old.

“If you don’t know what everyone is doing, what the coverages are, and what your formation is, it doesn’t matter how talented you are,” said Radi, an ultra-focused eighth-grader with hazel eyes and wavy brown hair. “The guy that is smarter is going to get the job.”

Welcome to the modern era of quarterback development. In Colorado, it’s an expensive process that often starts in elementary school, opening the door to potential football stardom — or mental and physical burnout.

A week ago, with a light fog clearing above the football field at Lutheran High School, Radi and more than a dozen aspiring young passers gathered at 9 a.m. for a weekly group training session with Jenkins Elite. Jenkins is a Colorado-based football training academy that offers a year-round QB school.

Founder Tim Jenkins — a former ThunderRidge and Ft. Lewis College quarterback — led a workout for two hours with hands-on training for third-to-eighth grade quarterbacks. There are also individual sessions throughout the week.

“We teach the basics of football IQ,” Jenkins said.

Listen closely to the instruction as kids rotate drill stations and it sounds like an NFL workout.

“We’re just doing break, reset, pin.”

“I want double hand flash.”

“I’ve got to fade and get this ball out so I can absorb the hit coming.”

Radi — standing 5-foot-8, 130 pounds — was relaxed and poised hitting almost every target with his refined technique. His father, John, watched from the sideline sitting in a blue folding chair. He enrolled Nick in the program at age 9.

But John wasn’t always so sure about his son’s obsession. He recalled probably a dozen conversations that he initiated: “Do you really want to play quarterback?”

“Yeah, like, a lot of times,” Nick Radi said. “This year, it kind of clicked where I definitely want to be a quarterback. He tried to talk me out of it last year when I didn’t start (in seventh grade). I was like, ‘No, I want to do this. I want to beat someone out.’”

That’s when dad gave in.

“He’s just been adamant,” John Radi said. “Now, we don’t have the conversation. That’s just what he is. Anyone can see that.”

“Burnout is real”

Jenkins started training quarterbacks in 2013 with just a handful of players. Today, there are roughly 200 athletes from three states (Arizona, Colorado and Texas) enrolled in the year-long Jenkins Elite passing academy. There are different levels of financial investment.

Attending one group workout session in Colorado — with two hours of hands-on training with former college and NFL players — starts at around $58, Jenkins said. The QB academy provides extensive individual training with access to a full-time college recruiting coordinator, a virtual film school, and at least eight hours of specialized training. That program starts at $235/month in Colorado, Jenkins said.

The market for quarterback education has blown up across the Front Range.

Steve Fairchild, former head football coach at Colorado State (2008-11), runs Fairchild Quarterback Training on a part-time basis. He gives individual and group instruction to around 40 youth and high school players in any given week.

“It’s growing every year,” Fairchild said. “People are realizing, right or wrong, if you’re not throwing year-round at a young age — you’re gonna have a hard time even playing in high school. Because somebody else is training.”

Ryan Marini, head football coach at Denver South, did not take issue last season when three of his quarterbacks worked with Fairchild. The influence of private coaches can sometimes cause friction, Marini said, but high school offenses have evolved since his playing days.

“You don’t need any football experience to come and play at South, but if you want to play quarterback, you probably need some experience. It’s the one position that is just so much more demanding,” Marini said. “But I’m really rubbed wrong by some people trying to make a living off high school kids. I encourage my guys to be selective and shop around. Find coaches who are there for you and not themselves.”

The ultimate goal for most aspiring young players is a college scholarship.

Clint Brewster played quarterback for Mullen in the mid-2000s, signed with Minnesota and transferred to Tennessee Tech. He now works for 247Sports.com as a national football prospect evaluator. It’s Brewster’s job to assign star ratings once players are evaluated as sophomores.

He’s witnessed a steady rise in recent years of quarterbacks entering the system with four or five stars.

“There are so many kids that are more advanced these days than ever as far as their mechanics and reads,” Brewster said. “That can be a good thing. But it can also be a bad thing. Burnout is real.”

A recent medical study published in The Physician and Sportsmedicine Journal examined data from a regional pediatric medical center between 2003 and 2018 to review youth “football QB patients who sustained sports-related injuries.” Among 374 quarterbacks under 18 years old, the most commonly injured body part was the shoulder. The study added that about 35% of all injuries were “chronic in nature.”

Maintaining positive mental health is of equal concern.

Dr. Doug Jowdy, a sports psychologist with offices in Boulder and Denver, has provided counseling to athletes for more than three decades — including Olympic speedskating champion Apolo Anton Ohno. But Jowdy estimates roughly 70% of his client base today is between the ages of 10 and 16.

“The football players I’ve worked with are largely quarterbacks. The pressure they put on themselves is high and the room for error is much less,” Jowdy said. “I see these young athletes who didn’t win at state or regionals, or made the B-Team, and are devastated. … The mental health issues are often problems with sleep, having panic, sometimes suicidal thoughts, or thinking of quitting as a result of burnout.”

“I set so many goals for myself”

After the youth portion of the Jenkins Elite group workout ended, Radi — the QB-obsessed eighth-grader — stuck around for the second session. He watched his anticipated future as 20-plus high school players ran onto the field for their workout.

“I set so many goals for myself,” Radi said. “I started in the spring. This season, it’s to get at least eight wins and make it to the playoffs for sure. Then start in my high school freshman year.”

Austyn Modrzewski, a Mountain Vista freshman, has trained with Jenkins since first grade. He is expected to compete for the starting varsity quarterback job this season.

“Even when we’re 8 or 9 years old, we’re still learning things people do in the NFL. Once we get out here, we all do the same stuff,” Modrzewski said. “There are a few breaks. But it’s just fun. It’s hard to get burnt out.”

Jenkins includes mental health as part of his program. He said the key is “making sure the kids know they’re more than just a quarterback.”

But where should coaches and families draw the line when pushing young athletes to succeed?

“What I see on the Front Range is that if a child isn’t specializing at 7 or 8 playing club sports, their chances of playing in college — and some high schools — is very low,” said Jowdy, the sports psychologist. “I work with athletes at 10 or 11 that are deciding other sports have to go, even though they enjoy it.”

Radi continues to play basketball in addition to football. But he is all-in to become an elite quarterback. The Radi family plans to enroll Nick at an area high school with the most suitable depth chart for immediate playing time at the position. Jenkins Elite will assist that process.

Radi, so far, has shown zero signs of burnout.

“Quarterback is very mental,” he said. “You’ve got to have your mind focused on everything. You’ve got to be relaxed when you’re in the game. If you just take those little breaks in-between weeks, it’s better.”

The Jenkins Elite program has developed a number of Division I signees in recent memory — such as Ty Evans (N.C State/Texas State), Ryan Marquez (Wyoming) and Alex Padilla (Iowa). Next up is Vista Ridge junior Brayden Dorman. The 6-foot-5, 206-pound quarterback is a four-star prospect with scholarship offers from Arizona, CU, Wisconsin and many others.

Will Radi be next in line for the Class of 2026?

One throw at a time.

“The specialization thing has become such a polarizing topic. It’s almost worse than politics,” Jenkins said. “There are a lot of people who would think his parents are doing him a disservice. But what if he sleeps with a football every night, he rolls out of bed, and that’s all he wants to do?

“It’s a complex issue.”

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