Recruiting Report: Sam Valor/Monticello (2021)

MONTICELLO, MINN– This Monday morning recruiting report gets us to Monticello where we chat with one of the Magic’s most dynamic players on the football field. We chat with 2021 NFN prospect Sam Valor about his football career in Monticello, his recruiting interest, and much more!

Get to Know Sam Valor

Valor is a definition of a versatile asset in the Magic’s offense, defense, and special teams. At running back, Valor can accelerate to the outside or can lay the hammer when he runs in between his blockers upfront. His versatility doesn’t stop in just the backfield, as he also can run strong routes and has good hands to catch the football. His biggest strengths on the football field are his field vision, his speed, and his agility when he has the football.

Favorite Parts About his Positions

“The endless ways of improvement,” Valor says are his favorite parts about the multiple positions he can play for Monticello. Working actively on his techniques and refining his skills are what he enjoys most to his game too. The positions Valor plays in gives him the athleticism to be a playmaker all over the football field.

College Interest/Elevator Pitch

Valor says he certainly wants to play college football and he’s already taken some visits to see where he wants to go in Division I thru Division III to see where the best fit is. Those visits he’s already taken are at North Dakota, Grinnell College (Iowa) and UW-River Falls. Sam has a schedule of visits he has planned in the coming future at Drake (Iowa), Columbia (New York), Concordia-St. Paul, Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota-Moorhead, Bethel, St. Thomas, St. Olaf and UW-Eau Claire. There have been two more Ivy league junior camp invites that have come in from Harvard and Cornell and one from the Missouri Valley from the Coyotes of South Dakota.

As for Sam’s elevator pitch to college coaches, he had this to say about his game and taking it to the next level:

I think college coaches should want me for their program because I am someone that will always look for what more I can do to improve myself. They will get someone that wants to play college football for all the right reasons and that will embrace the challenge of being a student-athlete.

Offseason Work Ons

Monticello head coach Jason Telecky and his staff have told Sam to focus his offseason working on his blocking ability. Sam’s focused on building his strength to get stronger this offseason and create fear in players bigger than me when he blocks them next season. Valor has also drawn a focus on blocking this offseason with blocking technique pads and sleds.

Sam’s Mentor

Sam like most younger brothers, looks up to older brother when it comes to his game on the football field. “I’ve always looked up to him and mimicked what he did,” Valor said about making his game similar to his big brother. His brother’s hard work at Monticello High School instilled that Sam built that same kind of work ethic in his own game. His brother has also been a coach t to Sam, always making sure to look for ways to make his game even better.

Building from the 2019 Season

Although the Magic didn’t have the strongest year record-wise, Valor and the Magic learned a lot on how to get better on the field. “This season I learned how to adapt in every game giving my team the best chance to win,” Valor said to Northstar Football News. There were plenty of times, including the game I watched the Magic against Becker, that teams like the Bulldogs exploited stopping Sam’s run. Sam said he’s carried good fakes and good blocks on the plays when he wasn’t running the football as usual. Sam’s biggest goals next season as team captain for the Monticello Magic is to be the best team captain he cand and to lead his team by example. His personal goal is to be the Magic’s offensive MVP and win the award at the end of the season of “Teammate of the Year”.

Valor is a 4.0 student at Monticello and is one of the fastest running backs I’ve seen in the 763 where he 1200 yards and 12 touchdowns last season for the Magic. You can check out all that speed here in his junior Hudl tape.

Photo Courtesy: Jared Hines, Monticello Magic