Recruiting Report: Mateo Noriega (Burnsville 2022)

One of the cooler and more underrated aspects of writing for Northstar Football News is uncovering, tracking, and hyping up the younger upcoming prep recruits the state of Minnesota has to offer. Getting ahead on the recruiting trail of a future potential highly rated recruit and helping to disperse their film and get their name out there as a underclassmen is a very cooling feeling as a writer in my position. I also can't help but think a good one has been found with this newest recruit for this report: Burnsville Blaze 2022 grad Mateo Noriega. The 6'4, 250 lb. sophomore just finished his second high school season and is poised to make some waves coming up in Minnesota. Noriega has the measurable and attitude of a future scholarship athlete, and I'm very fortunate to be one of the first writers he contacted. Check out this first-look, exclusive interview with the 2022 grad as we discuss his football career thus far, playing at Burnsville, and some of his hopes for recruiting. Hope you enjoy! NFN: Hello and thank you for your time, Mateo. Share with us a little bit about yourself, when you began playing football, and what you love about the sport. Noriega: "So I’m 6’4, 250lbs and ran a 40 in 5.4 seconds. I bench 245 lbs., squat 360lbs., and clean 198 lbs. and I am a sophomore. I’m from Burnsville, Minnesota and I play for Burnsville high school. I started playing football in 2nd grade and I love the sport ever since. Some fun facts about me is that I love football and the weight room and just being a competitive person in everything I do. Whether it's video games, who can lift more, who can do a better job on the field ect. I love the competition. What I like about football is just hitting each other while having fun. It's great to blow someone up and going full speed all the time. Most of my highlights last year as a freshman were a mix of Dline and Oline and they were mostly just getting tackles by myself, helping on a tackle on Dline, and on Oline just pancakes here and there. This year it was like a couple pancakes every game and and a couple tackles on Dline. When I make a mistake I usually go back to teqnique and basics and not guessing on Dline and react and on Oline just fixing basic fundamentals on how I get to point A to B to do my job on the line without my RB getting killed." NFN: Tell us a little bit about your career thus far at Burnsville. What have you learned, what's the offseason like, and who were some players you looked up to? Noriega: 'What I learned from my freshman year physically is that I needed more speed and explosiveness and strength so I went to the weight room everyday in the off-season and did powerlifting and got 50lbs up and now I see myself physically stronger on the line and easier for me to do my job with my size and strength. That’s what I have noticed this year in difference. Overall I changed the was I practice and have my mindset every practice just happy to go and play the sport and get better every day to make myself better and everyone else around me. When I joined the program as a freshman it was a little bit different than youth because they were serious about trying to win every game and go to state but I was ready after learning new drills and routines with the high school coaches and just making myself better and looking up to the seniors. In Burnsville every time I play I was a starter ever since a kid and thought that somewhere on the field was my starting spot. The person I mainly looked up to was Kyle Atkinson who is a D1 athlete for football and track and field. He was the starting nose guard on the Dline and was a beast and had a bunch of D1 offers like U of M, UCLA, ect. He showed me some techniques on the Dline to get Oline hands away from you. My offseason right now at Burnsville is looking well for me after me and my coaches talked about goals and areas to work on for the starting spot next year at varsity. Personally our sophomore team went 2-6 while varsity went 1-7 but I felt that most of our sophomore are committed to the game like I am and want something good out of it and even though we lost many games we are still a family and we learned to be new friends and most importantly be some a family. For things to work for next year we don't need the people who expect to get on the field as a starter and never put the time, blood and effort to work for the spot they just wanna play and when they do in the last quarter they get killed because they are not in the weight room and not doing drills right and serious how they should be. My next step as an lower class men to upperclassmen is to prove to everyone that the effort you put in the off-season like I did my freshman year will pay off next year and you will see results on the field. My coaches see me everyday in the weight room and like it and stop by to talk to me and check how I’m doing and if anyone else wants to play football or is interested in any sort of way." NFN: What about recruiting? Even though it's early are you interested in any teams or being contacted by any colleges? Noriega: "In a college it doesn’t matter the level I play in I just want to try to make it to D1 or if I can’t I’ll play D2 or D3. I’ve been to 1 camp last year and it was an ETS camp for scouts of Minnesota to see the upcoming classes on the 40 beach press and speed and agility drills. All I want to look in a college is that it has a good football program and good academics on the area I want to study in college. I’ve been contacted by Luther college and Davenport university and a bunch of college camp invites." 2019 midseason Hudl: <a href="http://www.hudl.com/v/2C3Ad8">http://www.hudl.com/v/2C3Ad8</a>