By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Joining a major college football team as a walk-on is a leap of faith that Patrick Henschen decided to take after playing quarterback for Newport Central Catholic the last three seasons.
Patrick Henschen was a three-year starter at quarterback for NewCath.
When preseason practice begins at the University of Kentucky in a few weeks, Henschen will be working out with the Wildcats even though he wasn’t actively recruited by the coaching staff.
“I always wanted to go to UK and thought I might as well try to walk on to the team,” he said. “I talked to the coaches and they watched my film (from high school games) and were really excited about it, so I decided to do it.”
Two senior linebackers on the Ryle football team last season — Jackson High and Collin Demetrakis — will also be among the walk-ons at major college practice sessions this summer. High is going to Kentucky and Demetrakis accepted an invitation to join the Louisville program.
“I was just going to go to school and let my athletic days be over,” Demetrakis said. “I had gotten a full-ride (scholarship) academically to the University of Louisville and I was OK with that. Then the football program called and said, ‘Hey, we know you’re coming here to school and we’d really love for you to be a preferred walk-on.’ I thought about it for a while and football is in my blood so I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to continue to play the game I love.”
Ryle linebacker Collin Demetrakis
Henschen passed for more than 4,000 yards during his three-year varsity career at NewCath and led the 2014 and 2015 teams to the Class 2A state finals. He said he received a scholarship offer from University of Tennessee-Martin to play quarterback, but he never made a commitment. After that offer expired, he contacted the coaches at Kentucky about being a walk-on.
Henschen is listed as 6-foot-6, 210 pounds on recruiting websites. With his size and athletic ability, the Kentucky coaches want to see if he can play tight end or wide receiver if he doesn’t make the cut at quarterback.
“I’m just going to go down (to preseason practice) and see how it works out,” Henschen said. “If I think I’ve got shot a quarterback, I’ll talk to them about that. If they want me to try something else, I’m fine with that — anyway I can get on the field.”
Demetrakis said the Louisville coaches considered playing him at strong safety until they saw him in person and decided to put him at inside linebacker. That’s the position the 6-foot, 205-pound senior played for Ryle last season when he made a team-high 117 tackles. Jackson was right behind him with 111 stops.
College recruiters didn’t know a lot about Demetrakis going into his senior season. Last summer, he broke a bone in his right leg and couldn’t attend the football camps where college recruiters get a good look at up-and-coming prospects. Now he’s looking forward to showing the Louisville coaches what he can do.
“I know I can play at this level,” Demetrakis said. “There were a lot of different (college) coaches who talked to me and said they liked the way I play, but I had to skip all the camps during the summer and I think that really hurt the recruiting process. So I’m very excited about the opportunity that I have (with Louisville).”
Before he agreed to join the Louisville team, Demetrakis said he talked with some players who had been college football walk-ons. They told him how hard you have to work in the weight room, on the practice field and in the classroom to impress the coaches and earn playing time in games.
“The thing I got from those conversations is you have to be willing to fight for your position and I have that ability,” he said.
