Q&A with Springfield Central wide receiver Myles Bradley

One of the best parts about covering high school athletics is seeing a young person realize his or her dream of securing a place to continue his or her career at the college level.

This past week, Springfield Central wide receiver Myles Bradley made a verbal commitment to Colgate University. We reached out Wednesday night to get his thoughts on the big decision.

Here's an edited version of that conversation.

MassVarsity: At what point did you feel like Colgate was the right place for you? I know when I talked to you at the 7-on-7s in Holyoke, Colgate was one of the teams you mentioned. At what point did you decide, all right, Colgate's the place for me?

MB: I went to the game where they played Holy Cross, toured the campus and stuff like that. I had a really good time and could just picture myself there. I loved the atmosphere and it was a really good game. So, at that moment, I could see myself there. About a week later, I committed.

MV: How much of their offense had you seen before? A school like Colgate, they're not on television all the time. When they recruited you, did you have a good idea of what they do and how they used receivers?

MB: At first, no, I wasn't. But I did some research and stuff like that, watched some film from their old games, and then I talked to some of the coaching staffs, so I could see as a player what they'd want to do with me. So after doing those things, I thought I could fit in pretty well. That was something even better. And they're also losing five receivers this year, so that's another thing that opened it up for me, as well.

MV: How many places did you visit? There were a lot of great schools recruiting you.

MB: I visited a lot of schools. I visited Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Bryant, Holy Cross, Colgate, UConn, UMass. There may be a few others, but those were a couple of the schools I had visited.

MV: I know you've been playing football your whole life and wanted to play college football, especially at a scholarship level. At what point did you know you could play at that level? Was it when schools started contacting you, or was it coaches that you were working with telling you that it was a real option for you?

MB: I feel like once I got to high school, my coaches started preparing me and telling me what they saw in me, and the potential I had. I started believing in myself even more, and I think that elevated my game, as well. Then once the (college) coaches started coming, it really told me I could play at that level. Once the coaches started contacting me, I knew that I could play at that level.

MV: Obviously, all the schools you were looking at are great academic institutions, too. How was it for you, growing up and studying, how important was it for you to excel in the classroom, as well?

MB: Because of my parents, academics always came first in my life. That's how I was raised. It's always been, "No ball without books." I think that's something that's very important to me. Education is something that's very important, because football won't last forever, of course, so that's something that's very important to me.

MV: Are there any teachers at Central or along the way that really pushed you, as well?

MB: I had a history teacher from my junior and sophomore years, Joshua Rice, a great man, and he taught me a lot. I really appreciate him. He pushed me in the classroom.

MV: I've covered high school sports for a long time, and sometimes there are kids that have the talent to make it to the next level, but don't. But it seems like, at Central, the support from the coaches and everybody, a lot of kids don't fall into that trap of being really good but not able to make the grades. Is that something the whole program takes pride in?

MB: That is. Something our coaches always tell us is do your homework, stuff like that. They want to have high academics on our guys because they know we have a lot of good football players up here, and we want to separate ourselves. And I feel a way we can do that is in the classroom, because there are a lot of good athletes that can't get the job done in the classroom for whatever reason. But I feel like if you are able to do that, you can put yourself in position for the next level.

MV: I was at the Lincoln-Sudbury game, and it didn't turn out how you guys wanted, obviously (Central lost, 35-7). But do you like the fact that your coaches challenge you like that, and always want you to play the best of the best, no matter what?

MB: Of course. We always want to play the best. We want to compete at a higher level, and in order to do that, you've got to play against the best competition. We want to do that as many times as we can every year. We have no problem with that. We want to play against the best teams.

MV: What's the excitement level like this week (Central hosts St. John's of Shrewsbury, which beat the Golden Eagles in the Div. 3 state semifinals in 2017)? They're always fast-paced. They like to spread it out like you guys. Is that a fun rivalry for you?

MB: For me it is, of course, and I feel like for my teammates it is, as well. We want to come out, compete, no matter who the team is, but obviously we have a little but extra. Practice all week, game plan, we try to prepare for this game. It's big for us. We want to come out with the win, so we're excited.