~by Carla Parker
Richard Young, 14, is one of the most aggressive players on the football field and fastest on the track.
Young, a student at Lehigh Acres Middle School in Lehigh Acres, Fla., has been playing football since the age of five. He started playing football to release some aggression.
“I just wanted to let my anger out on other people,” he said. “I love knocking people out.”
He plays running back for the Fort Myers Lions. He said playing for them has been a good experience.
His biggest play on his career came in the Florida-Georgia Future Stars Game when he broke through three to four tackles for a 50-yard touchdown run.
“I just ran as fast as I could,” he said.
Although he can break tackles and out run defenders, Young said he would like to get better at catching the ball out of the backfield.
Young also run track for the Olympia Track Club out of Fort Myers. He currently holds the fastest times in the 100-meter dash (11.15) and 200-meter dash (22.51) in Florida for all middle school boys, which he accomplished at the AAU National Club Championship. He said running track helped improved his speed on the football field.
Young’s uncle, Timothy “Porkchop” Grubbs, said his nephew is a hard worker.
“He goes 100 miles per hour. He’s the type of kid that you have to tell to slow down because he’ll go so hard that he’ll hurt himself,” Grubbs said.
Grubbs said he is proud of what Young has accomplished so far in his young career because of the footsteps he’s following in.
“He has to compete with his big brothers,” Grubbs said. “His big brothers are football players too so it’s a lot of pressure on him to be as good as his brothers. I’m proud that he works hard and competes to be better than them.”
Grubbs said that pressure to be as good or better than his brothers makes Young a better player.
“When the pressure is on that’s when he turns it up to another level,” Grubbs said.
Young said his favorite football player is Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb.
“He plays the same position as I do, and he runs hard,” Young said.
He said he wants to play college football and, in the NFL, and will do whatever it takes to get to the next level.
“I will work harder than everybody,” he said.
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