Recruiting/Player Profile: Gabe Hanninen/Detroit Lakes (2020)

Our next recruiting profile takes us Detroit Lakes, Minnesota where we chat with 2020 NFN prospect <strong><a href="https://www.northstarfootballnews.com/player/gabe-hanninen/">Gabe Hanninen</a> </strong>who is a versatile fullback that played running back (this year), fullback and linebacker for the Lakers. We chatted with Hanninen about his season, his recruiting trail, and much more. <strong>Get to Know <a href="https://www.northstarfootballnews.com/player/gabe-hanninen/">Gabe Hanninen</a></strong> Hanninen is a very physical, tough player for the Lakers. His main position is fullback, but when the running back from the Lakers got hurt this season, Hanninen stepped in and did a nice job. On both sides of the ball, he plays with a competitive edge that also wants to "hit someone hard on every play" he told Northstar Football News. Hanninen's biggest strengths are being able to make quick reads with a quick reaction to those reads. He also is a good leader on the field, when something might not be going the Lakers way. <strong>Best Parts About Fullback/Linebacker</strong> On the defensive side of the ball, being the leader of the defense is what Hanninen loves about the position most. As far as a fullback, Hanninen loves blocking for his running back in for a touchdown as his favorite part about the fullback position. <strong>College Interest/His Pitch to College Coaches</strong> Hanninen has had a great number of programs that have offered him already. Concordia-St. Paul, Minnesota-Moorhead, Bemidji State, University of Mary (ND), University of Jamestown (ND), and Valley City State University (ND) are all programs that have offered him to play football next year. His pitch to college coaches is that he is a hard-working, determined player that wants to learn even more about the game, and is very coachable as well. <strong>Improvements Made This Season</strong> Getting bigger was the biggest thing they told Hanninen to do before his senior season. They wanted him to get stronger but yet keep his speed. Hanninen went to work on his eating plan and his lifting plan and got bigger with the help of <strong>Mike Labine </strong>and <strong>Reed Heftka</strong> who work in the Lakers weight room and helped Gabe get bigger to take charge of the Lakers this season. <strong>Gabe's Mentors</strong> Gabe told Northstar Football News that his three mentors are current Lakers head coach <strong>Josh Omang</strong>, former head coach<strong> Flint Motschenbache </strong>and Gabe's dad. "They have all committed so much time to make me the best player I can be, and I just want to impress them and make them proud every game," he said about his mentors on the football field. <strong>Learning from the Season</strong> Hanninen said this year he learned on the football field that you can't take things for granted because they can be done so fast. He also noticed the most this season that how much your work in the offseason affects your play on the field as that's not something he's noticed as much in years past. You can check out Gabe's Hudl film <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/8493485/5dc38bb206616e0cd084c1b4">here</a> from his senior season with the Lakers.