Every day Owen Mellish ‘24 pushes towards greatness, and works towards his goal of playing college football. The hard work is finally paying off as he is looked at by multiple scouts. 

Mellish is a receiver which is a competitive position for high school football. “Most kids want to play receiver and so it’s pretty common, which makes it kind of hard to get scouted and recruited for the position just because there’s so many people that are also playing it,” Mellish said.

Getting scouted and playing for a college comes with multiple requirements, not only being good at football. “You have to be kind of big, you got to be tall, you gotta be fast,” said Mellish, “They’re going to pick someone that’s 6′ 3″ and super muscular over some shorter, skinny kid.”

When being scouted there are multiple steps. Once you’re in the physical shape and mental space to be scouted, you have to make sure you are being looked at and putting yourself out there. According to Aaron Paddock, the head football coach, it all begins with extending yourself and going to camps. “It starts with reaching out to a particular coaching staff or a representative from the university and saying, I’m interested in playing college football, and they’ll ask to see your game film, and then based on their reflection they might invite you to go to a team camp,” said Paddock

Once you have a camp invite, that’s when things start to pick up. The coaches are truly watching you. 

The final step is the offer.

Mellish has worked through these steps and received multiple offers. “Dartmouth, School of Mines, Bucknell. Then a bunch of other colleges have contacted me and we’ve talked a little bit but those are my top three,” Mellish said.