Recruiting/Player Profile: Calven Voxland/Zumbrota-Mezeppa (2020)

<span class="mceItemHidden">With this <span class="hiddenSpellError">Northstar</span> Football News recruiting profile, we head to Zumbrota to chat with a 2020 NFN prospect who has not yet landed home in the recruiting circle as of yet. We chatted with <strong>Calven Voxland </strong>about his career at Zumbrota-Mazeppa, what's on his recruiting trail, and much more.</span> <strong>Calven Voxland, Class of 2020 (Senior)</strong> <strong>Position: </strong>Running Back/Linebacker <strong>High School Program: </strong>Zumbrota-Mazeppa <strong>Get to Know Calven Voxland</strong> Voxland is a 2020 two-way player for the Cougars at running back and outside linebacker positions. He brings to the table, great speed, great fundamentals of what goes on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, a great knack for finding the holes and hitting them, as well as on defense knowing exactly how to go "in pursuit" on an incoming tackle. Calven credits his strengths as having a cut downhill run game that would flourish well in an inside/outside zone level in the college game. Between the tackles, Voxland can deliver big contact to defenders with ease as well as hit the perimeter to beat the opposing defense on his big runs. Defensively, Voxland is a sideline to sideline player that truely hustles on every play. He's also great at shedding blockers, taking on ball carriers when they think they've found a hole, and running down ball carriers from behind. Voxland was the Cougars tackles for a loss leader for his junior and senior year at Zumbrota-Mazeppa. <strong>Best Parts About Running Back/Linebacker</strong> I always get a different answer from running backs at what their favorite part about the position is and I again got something a little different from Voxland's response. His favorite part about playing running back is being able to "do my own thing once the ball is in my hands" he told Northstar Football News. At linebacker, his favorite parts are getting that open field tackle as well as getting in the backfield and rushing the quarterback. <strong>College Interest</strong> Even though some might say no coach could point out Zumbrota, Minnesota on a map, other than of course former Jacksonville Jaguars head coach and current Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator <strong>Gus Bradley</strong> who's hometown is Zumbrota, coaches have found Voxland a little off the beaten bath of the recruiting trail. Programs such as Minnesota-Moorhead, Luther (IA), St. Scholastica, Wisconsin-Stout (my alma mater), Gustavus and Concordia-St. Paul has all had Voxland on their radar for next year. <strong>Improvements from Voxland </strong> The few things the Cougars coaching staff told Voxland to work on was his pass-catching and his durability on the field. Being the main running back for the Cougars, Voxland had to improve on his receiving skills. For those that don't know, the Cougars run the spread offense which always needs a feature back which is the role Voxland played. He led the conference in carries this season, so he knows how to carry a workload in that offense. To work on his pass-catching, Voxland started doing more WR drills to get better. That led him to be the Cougars' 2nd leading receiver in his senior season at Zumbrota-Mazeppa. <b>Calven's Mentor</b> Calven is another player that looks up to his older brother, <strong>Hayden Voxland</strong> who is a wrestler at SMSU. With just being two years older than Calven, Hayden is a role model and motivator to Calven's career in football. "He showed me how hard work and dedication pay off," Voxland told Northstar Football News. <strong>Biggest Things Calven Learned About Himself This Season</strong> The things Calven learned about himself as a player this season were how important it is to be seen as a leader in the Zumbrota-Mazeppa community, how much of an impact a football player from the Cougars program like Calven can help develop the youth football programs in the Zumbrota community. He also told NFN that "learning to preserve and not giving up during hardship" has made him a better person and player this season.