6-5, 250-pound Deep Run (Glen Allen, VA) standout Sean Gottschalk has possessed the physical skills to be a solid football player for quite some time. But it was last season as a junior when he burst onto the scene as a very good football player. By the end of the season, he had finished with 56 tackles with six sacks at strongside defensive end in Deep Run’s 4-4 scheme. Now, he has become one of the top prospects in the state.

“The thing about most kids is kids play football in elementary school, then middle school, then ninth grade up until varsity,” Gottschalk said. “I played in the sixth grade and then the seventh grade and didn’t play eighth grade. In the ninth grade, I had a stress fracture in my foot so I lost some valuable experience there. I didn’t know how to play the game. I was really raw but still about the height I am now and weighed a little less. In 10th grade I came to the varsity level and still didn’t know how to play the game very well. And then junior year I finally came in and [Deep Run Head Coach Lenny Pritchard] talked to me about what I needed to do. Coach Pritchard taught me even more than I could imagine I think. I’m still pretty raw and need to tune some skills up, but I finally learned how to play the game a little bit.”

Deep Run Head Coach Lenny Pritchard estimates that “halfway through the year he came into his own,” Pritchard said of Gottschalk. “That’s the best way to say it. He turned into a good football player. He just came out in game five. He played as well as anybody defensively for the final five games.”

While Gottschalk couldn’t explain last season’s sudden burst – he says “I still don’t know what happened (laughs)” – the fact remains that he has a newfound confidence. And he’s carrying this confidence into next season.

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