Recruiting Report: Eli Mau/Chanhassen (2021)

<strong>CHANHASSEN-- </strong>Today Northstar Football News caught up with 2021 NFN prospect <strong>Eli Mau </strong>an outside linebacker for the Storm. We chatted with Mau about his junior season, his recruiting interest, and much more. <strong>Get to Know Eli Mau</strong> Mau is the driving force for the Storm's defense at outside linebacker. He was second on his team in tackles as a junior and was selected all-district. He also was key For the Brand, as he was Special Teams MVP in his district as a kicker and punter. His career playing football started back in the 3rd grade when he started playing soccer which is when he started kicking. He took over the kicking and punting roles for the Storm as a sophomore as his strong work ethic showed that he could lead the special teams unit on varsity. <strong>Favorite Part About Linebacker</strong> Mau's favorite part about playing linebacker is being a hard tackler. As a defensive player, you change the momentum of the game with just one big hit or big play and that what Eli Mau loves about the position. <strong>College Interest/His College Pitch</strong> Mau told Northstar Football News his main goal is "play Division I football," His accolades towards that goal speak for themselves as he a high amount of Division I programs he is talking to. His game-day invites list consists of Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota State, and Michigan State. He's worked out in front of coaches from North Dakota State, Iowa and three programs will be coming soon to check out Mau that include, North Dakota, Wyoming and South Dakota. His pitch to college coaches is he's a hard-working, driven and always focused player. Mau leads by example and although he's not the most vocal player on the Storm, his hard work, dedication, and focus rub off on his Chanhassen teammates. <strong>Improvements from Past Seasons</strong> When Mau came into the Chanhassen program as a freshman, he came in at only 135 pounds which was more than enough motivation to get bigger. His offseason workouts go 6 days a week and Mau has stuck to that over the last two years along with changing his nutrition habits as well. From his sophomore year to his junior year, Mau moved from being just a player on special teams to being a dominant threat on the Storm defense in his junior year. That transition made Mau learn how to use his hands better, read blocks and what the offense is showing, and utilizing his newly improved size and strength to his game. <strong><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Eli's Mentor</span></span></strong> Mau credits Chanhassen head coach <strong>Cullen Nelson </strong>as he's not only his head coach but he's also the Storm's linebackers coach too. Nelson has been influential in Mau's football improvement but also improving him as a man off the field as well when he needed help in the classroom and life in general. <strong>Learning from Last Season</strong> With having limited returning starters last season, Chanhassen was able to finish 5-5 last season in Mau's junior season. The biggest thing Mau learned was learning how to more fluently practice and play together as a team. Not that the Storm had a problem with creating individual stars, but the ability to keeping everyone on task and performing as a team was crucial for Mau's Storm last season. Mau also created the "next play" mentality. Mess up on a play? Nail the next one. It happened last season when Mau had a chance to make a game-winning kick for the Storm but wasn't able to connect, that's how he developed that next play mentality. Because of that, he later in the season got another opportunity to get another field goal chance and nailed it because of mentally getting in that next play mentality. You can check out this Division I prospect's film <a href="http://www.hudl.com/v/2CGW5T">here</a> as we have his junior film from Hudl.