One local football player got his collegiate career off to an early start after graduating mid-term from high school.
Clayton Coll, who averaged a gaudy 17.6 tackles a game for Franklin Community High School last season, hasn’t looked back.
Coll graduated last winter, moved into his Ball State dorm room on Jan. 6 and immediately got to work accumulating credit hours, making new friends, working out and learning the quickest routes around campus.
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Recruited to play inside linebacker, the 6-foot-3 Coll has added 10 pounds and is now up to 225.
“I was definitely excited to get up here,” said Coll, a biology major who plans to go into pre-med. “There were three other guys who were mid-term graduates. We all became friends. The hardest part to adapting was working out in a different place with different people and with a different workout program.
“But moving to Franklin from Tri-West between my sophomore and junior years of high school helped me when it came to meeting new people.”
Coll’s father, Chris, a 1985 Tri-West graduate, left after 11 seasons coaching his alma mater to take the job at Franklin in November of 2016. Clayton, the youngest of Chris and Deena Coll’s three sons, had been a student in the Tri-West district since kindergarten.
He had to adjust to a new community.
“Being at Tri-West was kind of a legacy thing, wearing the blue and gold and all that. I was a little bit apprehensive about that,” said Chris Coll, who played high school football at Tri-West under Mike Gillin, later the coach at Indian Creek.
“But I also knew it would be a good opportunity for (Clayton) at the time. He gave us the blessing early on and looked at it as a challenge.”
Chris Coll said Clayton has always been mature for his age having grown up in coach’s offices, meeting rooms and with two older brothers. Tyler Stockton, Ball State’s first-year co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach, sets no limits when it comes to what Coll can accomplish in a Cardinals uniform.
“One day I’m going to look back and say I was lucky enough to coach Clayton Coll. He’s got a great future at Ball State,” said Stockton, a defensive lineman at Notre Dame from 2009-13. “The thing that impresses me most about him is his work ethic from the minute he got on campus.
“How he carries himself and how he brings it every day. Clayton is a coach’s son, so you can see the detail he has when it comes to the game of football.”
Coll is one of four Ball State football players from Johnson County.
Former Franklin receiver Cory Richards is joining the team as a preferred walk-on and will be Coll’s roommate when the 2019-20 school year begins. Center Grove product Trevor Hohlt is a redshirt sophomore receiver, while former Roncalli defensive lineman John Harris, a Greenwood resident, is another incoming freshman.
Graduating high school early meant Coll had to miss many of the activities with friends and Franklin during spring semester. He hopes the work he’s put in to this point is evident when the Cardinals open training camp on Aug. 1.
Ball State opens its season 30 days later against Indiana at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“For me, playing Division I football was my dream, so it was a sacrifice I was willing to make,” Coll said. “I really want to be the best I can and work my way onto the football field.”
