Sophomore Denzel Gardner, DeMatha’s starting quarterback, is nearing the end of his first full year in charge of the offense. Preparation has been an important part of his season, and this week he spoke about how he prepares for games and what he does to mentally get himself in game mode. Denzel said, “Basically what I do before every game is this, the night before the game before I go to sleep I do about 10-15 mins of cybernetics, this is basically me imagining myself making the plays in my head and how I’m going to lead my team to the win. Another thing I do is draw up the plays of the script and go through them so I’m sharp come game time. The last thing I do before a game is say a prayer and take a deep breath before the first snap and take everything in. The crowd, the other team, the lights, the weather, everything.” 

            When asked about how he feels about being the man in charge of the offense, Denzel answer very smooth saying “ I feel calm and poised, last year I was freshman and was thrown into the fire. Now that I have one year of experience under my belt, I know that I can lead my guys to wins and make throws comfortably. I also feel more confident because I am playing in the second hardest league in the nation and me and my guys are balling. The last thing I feel is a relief of pressure, sure there will always be pressure but now that I have proved I can handle my own,I go out there every Friday night with the thought that me and my guys can win. There is always more to prove through no matter what. I’ll still have haters and love from both sides. And for that fact I have to continue to prove the haters wrong. This is how I currently feel 8 games into my second year.”

           Finally,  Denzel was asked simply how his recruitment is going. He has had a good year and has made much progress both on and off the field thus far. He responded, “My recruitment hasn’t jumped off how I have wanted to exactly, but I remain humble and continue to work hard. I currently have Boston college which is an ACC school which means they are in a well known league that has had many NFL players drafted. But on the flip side of that I have been followed on Twitter from the top schools around the country, such as Penn State, Oregon, Maryland, Pitt and much more. I’m going to continue to work hard to get as many offers as I can and fulfill my potential at the school that best fits me.” As you can tell Denzel is very humble and is continuing to strive for greatness. His DeMatha family and I are wishing him a great rest of the season in hopes of bringing the championship home to DeMatha.