While other students spent their summer days tanning at the beach, or swimming in the pool, Grant Ewing spent his days working hard on the football fields at 6:30 AM. This summer he had the opportunity to attend several football camps at prestigious schools, as well as get a head start to the Lovett football season.
Grant attended several football camps at Hampden Sydney, a D1 School in Virginia, The Citadel in South Carolina, Elon, Stanford, and Alabama. With a big smile on his face, Grant told me that The Citadel was where his dad had gone. Still, the highlight was the Hampton Sydney visit. ”They were actually the first school that offered me,” he said.
Along with attending football camps at these colleges, Grant started training for the Lovett football season early on in the summer with a sleep-away football camp on campus. “It was the first time that coach Muschamp's actually done the camp here at school since I think I was in Middle School,” he said, “so everyone who's on the team right now hasn't done it. Even our senior class right now.” While I was peacefully sleeping, Coach Dobbins was waking them up by blasting music on a speaker
.They spent three nights in the gym from Thursday to Sunday. Each day consisted of two-a-day practices and then they had two one-a-day practices. “It brought us closer together as a team,” he said, “but at the same time it was a lot of football and a lot of practice in a short amount of time.” Grant explained that the experience was fun and impactful.
Since we are back to school and already getting piles of homework, I asked Grant what his plan is in order to manage life as a student-athlete. He told me that one of his goals this year is to keep A’s and B’s, “which is what I always do, so just shooting for that.”
As a senior, Grant finds it “weird just being on the top because in 6th grade it seemed so far away, but now it's not and you're finally done.” Grant wants to play football in college and says it has always been a dream of his since he was a child.
“D1 has been my goal but at the end of the day, I've started to realize no matter where I go it's still college football so, D2, D3, or D1, at the end of the day I just want to play in college,” he said.
On that note, Grant had a lot to say about goals for the football team at the start of the season.
“Our goal each year is to have the best season that we can and to grow as a team together and become a band of brothers,” he said. “This is something we don't develop at the beginning of the season, and we have to earn that from coach Muschamp. Last year we earned it after we beat GAC, so we didn't get it right at the start of the season. Once we get to that point, it is our goal to become that band of brothers each year.”
I loved the term Grant said: “Band of brothers.” He seemed to truly believe in the team’s role in representing our school on the football fields but also learning how to work with each other in order to bring success.
I interviewed Grant on Thursday, August 19. The following Friday was the first football game against our rivals, Westminster. Of course, the interview would not have been complete if I did not bring that up in our conversation. We know it turned out to be a tough loss, but Grant was optimistic going into the game, taking time to celebrate some up-and-coming players.
“A lot of new kids are going to have to step up and start for the first time,” he said. “Sophomore Wiley Tucker…Talen Frett. A Lot of younger guys are going to have to play. Also, juniors who have never played before. But it will be good to see where they are at and where we are at as a team.”
For all the hours of work he puts into his own game at summer camps and at Lovett, he continued to shout out others, praising the coaches he’s been training with since the summer. “Coach Peduzzi and the weight room staff, without them we wouldn't be where we are.”
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up