Prospect Spotlight: Gavin Falk – Edina (2022)

If you are coming off a year where you didn’t play as well as you thought you could or were forced to play before you were ready, one of the best ways to rebound from a rough season is to learn from one of the best football players in the state. That is what Edina Hornets’ junior [player_tooltip player_id="116252" first="Gavin" last="Falk"] did after he struggled his sophomore year. His work paid off – resulting in an entire season in the starting lineup and camp invites for the summer. "I played a bit at the beginning of the season as a sophomore, but I wasn’t ready," Falk admitted. "Wayzata’s [player_tooltip player_id="18140" first="Tyler" last="Magnuson"] (who ended up committing to Syracuse) blew me up in pass pro. When our injured senior starter came back, he took my place." Falk knew he had work to do. "I wasn’t strong enough, and I didn’t have good form," Falk said. "I learned to be more physical and more explosive in my pass pro. I made sure I was in good position." A year working with California commit Bastian Sweeney helped prepare the now full-time starter. "I think I did pretty good this year," Falk - one of the standouts at the PRZ Minnesota Showcase - said. "Obviously, being with Bastian, I had a good mentor. He helped me come into my own. We have similar body types; he helped me with drills over the summer. I started a little slow. I had some big matchups early, but I think I held my own." Falk started slowly, and so did the Hornets. "We had a lot of pieces that were good," Falk said, "we didn’t just mesh well together until the end of the season when we started to figure it out." They rebounded and won two of their last three games. "We ran the ball well with our good blocking, and we were able to spread the defense out with our spread offense," Falk said. "It helped our running backs find lanes to run through." Falk played multiple positions along the offensive line. "I played primarily right tackle, but I would sometimes shift to right or left guard," the 6’5" 285-pound junior said. "I think pass pro is my strength. Then I am also good a clearing guys out of the hole and sealing the gaps." Falk knows where he needs to improve this summer. "I want to be a beast in the running game. I think I have good technique in pass pro and can build on that, but I don’t think my run block is where it should be with my size. I need to work on my explosiveness in the run game. I need to work on staying low. At 6’5", I need to get low, and if I can meet their level, I am going to win that battle." He is a three-sport athlete, but his other sports purposely complement football. "I still do train football twice a week at a gym, but I think it is important to cross-train. I lift in the morning, and then I wrestled in the winter and play rugby in the spring. It was my second year wrestling, and I fell in love with it. It is a good way to cross-train to get better feet and get more physical. It made me better at hand fighting in pass pro. I used to play basketball, but I wanted to do something that would correlate to football. In my first year, I think I had a record of 10-20. In my second year, I went 24-15. I made it to super sectionals and took fifth." His wrestling training didn’t stop with the high school season. "I wrestle freestyle, but I am not good enough to go to tournaments. I just do it to get better at football and for fun." Rugby translates to football as well. "Rugby helps me with my foot speed. I primarily run the ball. As an offensive lineman in football, it is kind of fun to run the ball in rugby." Before athletics ramped up for the junior, Falk was making noise nationally in a completely different competition. " I used to go to chess tournaments. I used to go to nationals. When I was younger, once I took fifth or sixth in the nation. I still do it as a hobby and sometimes go to the chess club at Edina. I stopped playing seriously around seventh grade." Solid mentally and physically on and off the football field, Falk has started to get the attention of colleges, but he hopes his recruiting will ramp up this summer. "Recruiting is going alright," Falk said. "I think it is going to get better over the summer. North Dakota State wants me to go to a camp. South Dakota wants me to go to a camp, and some DII schools want me to go to their camps." With the lessons he learned his last two years in multiple sports, a successful camp season and a successful senior year are sure to give Falk plenty of options – putting his struggles as a sophomore well behind him.