A Dream Well Done?

Nia Crawford

1 December 2015                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Dawayne Hill

Imagine working day in and day out, for a dream that you know you’re capable of achieving and still noticing that you have to work harder next time. This was the unfortunate reality for many DC athletes. Throughout Dawayne Hill’s 4 years of playing football at McKinley Technology HS in Northeast, Washington DC he had aspirations of receiving offers from numerous colleges

Hill states “High school football, I want to say it was a great experience. For me playing football is everything, I love the sport so much it's crazy.” And Hill believes that this is shown through his talent on the field.

Towards the end of his senior football season Dawayne Hill began to notice the lack of recognition from college coaches. With a mindset of receiving at least one offer, the senior desperately began to send out his highlight tapes to any coach that he could come in contact with. The district of columbia has been known to produce great players such as Daniel Muir, Tavon Wilson and Edwin Williams. So why does this happen?

“I was a product of NO exposure and, even though I was an exceptional talent nothing happened for me” Hill reveals.

Patrick Johnson, a former player at Mckinley Technology High School, after his ninth and tenth grade year playing varsity decided to further his football career at Bullis High school in Potomac Maryland.

Patrick Johnson

“Being at Tech, I wasn’t able to receive the exposure I deserved in my recruiting process because McKinley Tech wasn’t known as a recruiting site for college coaches. I strongly believe that before my time at Tech, there was players that deserved to play for some of the top college football programs in the nation.” Patrick says.

With Patrick realizing that the results he wanted out of football he took it upon himself to make the best decision for himself, “It wasn’t hard to leave McKinley and the team after my 2 years there. I approached the situation with a business mindset picking the best decision that has the best outcome for me. Now I'm a University of Wisconsin commit.”        

Dawayne Hill also received the same results during his time playing for a DCPS high school, he says “They don't expose the great talent that DC had to offer and the blame deserves to be put on the coaches and the schools itself. I look at ESPN and see high schools from all over the country getting TV exposure and I can’t remember the last time a DCIAA school was on ESPN.” Being a captain of his football team, he felt as though he couldn’t leave his team, although he still wanted better for himself.Two players, with hopes of the same dream, with a similar skill set went two separate ways to test the adversity of building yourself without exposure. Yet one came back with different results than the other. Currently, Patrick Johnson has finished out his football season with Bullis High school and will be leaving to play for University Of Wisconsin in the summer of 2016. Dawayne Hill, freshman at Towson University, with plans on achieving the same dream he has always had by walking-on the football team in the spring of 2016.

“My future aspirations were to play in the NFL but I'm starting to realize that those in the NFL had great exposure throughout their life. I didn't and my dreams of playing in the NFL look like they aren't going to happen. However, that won't stop me from trying to accomplish that dream.”