Grandin Willcox

Athlete Bio

My path to playing football has been quite a journey. I started playing soccer when I was 6 years old in a local rec league. I quickly fell in love with soccer and have continued to play in higher levels of competitive travel teams and have been a starter on our Varsity High School team. Coach Tom has named me Captain for several games, he's a great coach to play for. My interest in football started early too, I got a football with a stand when I was 7. I'd kick the ball in our yard and my Dad and I would go up to the football field near our house where I'd kick some field goals. A friend of mine liked to kick to so we'd go up to the field more often. A coach of one of the youth football teams saw me kick and asked if I could come play football, I talked to my parents about it and my heart was drawn to soccer at that time. Football was still interesting and exciting to me and the time, energy and work I've put into soccer is proving to be an asset in football. A few key things happened the last couple years that brought me to joining our high school football team. I was playing with my soccer team in a regular season match, one of our players was fouled and I came forward from my defensive mid position to take the free kick. The kick was about 35 yards away from the goal, and I struck the ball almost perfectly. It just missed going in the goal by a few inches above the crossbar, missing the shot is not the point. The point is that my coach's wife (Coach Wyatt has helped me so much while he's been my coach) Kindel was sitting with a group of our team's parents and said "Gosh, that kid has got to kick a football!". My dad was one of those parents that heard her say that and he shared it with me. He could tell that her comment reignited my passion for football. A few weeks later our high school soccer season began, the football season had already started and played a few games. My dad and I were talking about football and he suggested that I walk over to the football practice after our soccer team finished practice, there was no football practice that afternoon, so I was a little bummed out. Later that week, there was football practice happening so after soccer practice was finished I decided to just walk over and asked if I could kick the ball. The coach said yes so I kicked it, another coach was walking near where I was kicking it (turned out to be Head Coach Farmer) and asked me to kick it again. About 15 minutes later Coach Farmer and I were making a phone call to my Dad and Coach Farmer asked if I'd be able to join the football team. That day I became the starting kicker on our team. My passion for kicking and being part of the football family has grown and grown since starting in October, 2020. I can see myself going to college to study forensics, and I believe it is the same need for precision and attention to the specific details that fuel my fire for kicking, those same skills are needed for both!

Awards & Honors

• John Williams Award recipient for most outstanding placekicker in District 7
• 2021 All District Football Team by FACA District 7-Kicker
• 2nd Team All County Soccer Team-Marion County FL
• Camp Results listed at the bottom of the profile.

Academics

• GPA: 3.86
• ACT: 18