There’s something to be said for doing things right and when it comes to running routes, few do it better than North Broward Prep (Florida) wide receiver A.J. Sebastiano.
We are headlong into the camp and combine season for high school football and the talent has been plentiful at the events. It would be easy for a wide receiver like Sebastiano to get overlooked amongst the bevy of athletes clocking incredible forty times and broad jumping the length of the football field. However, Sebastiano has managed to make everyone look his way.
It took me all of two minutes at the South Florida Express 7-on-7 tryouts in January to ask who this kid was. His route running was exceptional and his hands were fly paper. It seemed Sebastiano had gotten into a text book of route running and highlighted a bunch of pages. By the time I saw him again at the Under Armour Combine he was ready to teach the course Getting Open 101. Sebastiano has great size at 6’1″ 185 lbs but can not match some of the 4.3 and 4.4 forties of the guys who line up in front of him. This matters very little to the 2011 prospect as he performs his wizardry on defenders and finds himself all alone with his opposition often on the ground or in the wrong zip code. Sebastiano can get separation 1-on-1 with a defensive back in a porta-john. Many a defensive back have let out an expletive getting beat by Sebastiano. I witnessed the catch that is frozen in the picture attached to this article. Corey Tindal was stuck to Sebastiano like the gold caps on his teeth. Despite that, Sebastiano went up in in some acrobatic Cirque De Solei fashion and came down with the football. It’s just that kind of party when Sebastiano shows up with his cap turned backwards.
Sebastiano is still waiting for his first offer from a college football program but it’s only a matter of time. He recently took a trip to Gainesville to visit the Florida Gators and enjoyed it.
“It was incredible, their facilities were out of this World and the coaches couldn’t have been nicer,” said Sebastiano. “I really enjoyed myself up there on campus and the overall atmosphere was exactly what I am looking for.”
Sebastiano has heard quite a bit from Boston College, South Carolina, Florida, East Carolina, Tennessee and Illinois. He has also been in consistent contact with Ohio St., the school who’s offer he covets the most.
“Ohio St. is still my home town team growing up and I would like nothing more than to get an offer from them,” Sebastiano explained, “but if they don’t want me or it’s not the right fit, I would love to play for any of the other schools, I just love the game.”
Sebastiano’s love for the game is obvious and he would have to have passion for the game to survive the grueling seven school tour that he will take this summer. Sebastiano plans on visiting each of the seven schools that have been recruiting him the most to this point.
“Oh yeah, I’m going all over,” said Sebastiano. “I just need to go out to these campuses and show these colleges what I’ve been showing everyone else.”
In between the college campus tours, Sebastiano will taking a trip to Alabama to compete with his 7-on-7 team for nationals. It’s a pretty busy schedule and it only means that Sebastiano will be getting even better. Having hauled in 59 passes for 1,075 yards and nine TDs last year, improvement will not be a clearly defined term. However, I can guarantee this, the cussword count from opposing DBs will be on the rise in 2010 when they are facing this polished wide receiver prospect.
View A.J. Sebastiano’s highlight video at Gridironstuds.com, click here now.
Chad Wilson is a college football recruiting expert and creator of the GridironStudsApp which allows high school football players to gain exposure to college football coaches and fans. Wilson is a former college football player for the University of Miami (92-94) and Long Beach St. (’90-’91) and played briefly for the Seattle Seahawks (’95). He is also a former youth and high school football coach for over 15 years most recently for 5-A State of Florida Champs American Heritage. He runs All Eyes DB Camp a defensive back training company located in South Florida IG: @alleyesdbcamp. Wilson’s oldest son Quincy plays in the NFL for the New York Giants and his younger son plays cornerback for the Arizona Cardinals.
