Recruiting Report: Shawn Brodie Jr. (2018)

Three years ago he wasn't playing football and had never played football. Now, with his entire senior season to continue to build a resume, Cretin-Derham Hall senior Shawn Brodie Jr. has two offers to play college football. He came into football as an open book and let his coaches fill up that book with as much knowledge as Brodie could handle. The Raiders came out of the gate with four straight wins and finished with a 7-3 record – including a win in the first round of the playoffs. "We had a good season. We utilized everything we had,' Brodie said. "Everybody put their best foot forward. We took a lot of good things from last year. With a new coach to make it as far as we did – I felt like that was pretty good." When the Raiders were at their best, Brodie felt they were dictating the play instead of their opponents dictating to them. "We attacked. We made sure we always made the first move," Brodie told Northstarfootballnews.com. "On offense, our main focal point was to be fundamentally sound. Everybody has their job, and they do their job. On defense, we make the first move and make the offense adjust. We make everybody as uncomfortable as possible." Brodie has played defensive tackle during his short football career but starting last year he played both ways – starting as a junior at guard. "I have only been playing football since 8th grade," Brodie said. "I was an open book, and my coaches were giving good information to me. I took that and learned to play a new position. It helped my game out on defense too. Now I know what offensive linemen are trying to do to me and I know what little things to watch. We pull a lot. Last year I played left guard, but this year I will be playing right guard." His primary position – and the position colleges are interested - is defensive tackle. ‘I did well when teams tried to run the ball," the 6'1" 292-pound lineman said. "I suck up a lot of double teams and take up a lot of blocks. I have to beat linemen across their face all the time, so I feel like learning both sides really helped." Although he got a late start in sports, Brodie is now a three-sport athlete. This winter –for the third straight season – he was on the wrestling team. "Wrestling has helped me with my upper body strength. I like to go for either a double leg takedown or a whip over where I force my opponent almost to all fours and then use my upper body to get the takedown." Brodie completed his third season wrestling as well as his third year in track and field – but his first competing. His first few years he would participate in the running practices to work on his speed, but last spring he couldn't stay away from competition anymore and decided to compete in practice and in competitions in the shot put and the discus. This offseason Brodie also worked with an athlete's training group called Dynamic Functional Training based in St. Paul. Brodie has been doing football camps early in his career. He has been traveling around with a group called Play Hard. The group gets on a bus together, eats together and stays in hotels together when going to the different camps. He went into the camp experience for exposure, but he has received much more. "I started going to camps because I wanted to be seen," Brodie said. "As I started going to camps I realized I was picking up some good tips and I have been able to give those tips to my team and let my team see what I learned. It also helped me learn how to adapt to different situations with different people. You have to do the same thing everyone else is doing, but you have to do it better." One of the camps he attended was at the University of North Dakota. Minnesota-Crookston and Northern State were both in attendance, and shortly after the camp, they both offered Brodie. "I didn't lose too many one on one reps at the camp. I think I only lost once on a board drill and once on a pass rush drill where I just got jammed up." It was enough to sell the two programs on the talent of Brodie. It is talent that will continue to fill in the pages of Brodie's ever filling football book.