High school football’s short schedule makes it difficult for players to showcase their wares over a large sample size, but for a pair of St. Ignatius seniors that signed their letters of intent last Wednesday, their window was even smaller than most.
Both Jack Burnett and Duke Reeder had all of 12 varsity football games in their lifetime, but it was enough for Stanford to extend an invitation to Reeder as a preferred walk-on at linebacker and for Air Force to offer Burnett a full scholarship as a center.
“They’ve put in tremendous work to promote themselves in a year where they haven’t been able to play on the field,” defensive coordinator Gustavo Manzanares said before a limited audience of masked family members spaced out in SI’s McCullough Gymnasium. “There are a lot of states out there that did get a chance to play their senior year, and through it all, these guys managed to keep contact with their college coaches and impress them.”
While Burnett had been a member of the Wildcat football program since his freshman year, Reeder’s experience was much more of a whirlwind. A lacrosse player by trade, he never played JV or freshman football or even any sort of Pop Warner, making his 12 games in his junior season the only experience of his career.
“For me, it was gonna be a matter of playing just one sport,” Reeder said of choosing between football and lacrosse. “Stanford was the best fit for me in terms of a lot of things. I talked a lot with my dad; he played volleyball in college at UCSB and discussed what it means to be a walk-on and earn your right.”
As for Burnett, who has more of a conventional football background than Reeder, he plans to play center for the Falcons but is open to moving to guard if needed.
“They rush for about 300 yards per game, so it’s the dream place to play, along with getting a top-tier education. They could see me at center or running at guard in their offense,” he said. “I went there in March right before COVID hit, and it was awesome.”
