Having first learned to play the precision football position of a long snapper, Brady Owens found himself developing into a talented tight end.
Owens honed those skills into becoming a standout player during his four-year high-school career playing for Arlington’s Yorktown Patriots.
During those seasons, Owens’ abilities, size and versatile physical status attracted attention from multiple college teams, including Division I programs.
The Yorktown senior has now committed to play for the Division I Rutgers University Scarlet Knights of the Big Ten in Piscataway, N.J. The 6-foot-6, 230-pound Owens was recruited mainly as a tight end, but might also have the opportunity to long snap for Rutgers.
“I am super excited about this,” Owens told ARLnow. “It always has been a dream to play Division I football in college. Rutgers is the right place for me.”
Rutgers was one of 26 Division I schools that sought to recruit Owens. Among others were Syracuse, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Appalachian State, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Indiana and Penn State. He also drew interest and offers from Division II and III programs.
As is the case with many high-school athletic recruits, Owens is completing all his high-school coursework this semester and heading to Rutgers in January. He’ll be back in Arlington in the spring to attend prom and graduation.
Rutgers tight-end coach Scott Vallone watched Owens play and work out multiple times. Owens said that personal interest from Vallone became a big reason he is attending Rutgers.
“He even came to one of our spring practices,” Owens said of Vallone.
Yorktown head coach Alec Hicks said college recruiters were attracted to Owens because of his speed, size, attitude, athletic and blocking ability, along with his versatility and his superior pass-catching abilities. Owens’ 40-yard dash time is a swift 4.7 seconds. Some NFL tight ends don’t run that fast.
Hicks said recruiters also liked Owens’ desire and ability to long snap and play special teams.
“Brady has great hands and can move like a quick wide receiver from his tight-end position,” Hicks said. “He can go up high and catch the ball and run and gain yards after making a catch. He’s hard to cover.”
This past season, Owens was a team captain and helped Yorktown win the Liberty District championship with a 6-0 record, including wins over Arlington rivals Wakefield and Washington-Liberty. The official Yorktown stats had him catching 39 passes for 498 yards and three touchdowns. He also had a two-point conversion catch.
Owens caught 26 passes for 324 yards in Yorktown’s final five regular-season games.
“I love playing tight end and special teams, and I take pride in blocking,” Owens said. “Winning the district this past season and beating W-L was a big milestone.”
As a junior, Owens had 32 catches for 336 yards and three scores and ran the ball five times for 64 yards and one TD.
For his performances the past two seasons, Owens was chosen first-team all-Liberty District and first-team 6D North Region on offense.
“Brady was great to coach, and he was a big team leader for us,” Hicks said.
As for his long-snapping skills, Owens was taught by his older brother Grayson, a former long snapper for the Virginia Military Institute football team. Brady Owens then began first playing that position as an eighth-grader on Yorktown’s freshman football team.
He was Yorktown’s varsity long snapper for three seasons for all-district place-kicker/punter Max Yoon, who will play Division III college football at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Owens played other sports growing up, including baseball. He eventually gave those up to concentrate solely on football. He also played youth football for the Arlington Admirals.
Longtime former Yorktown head football coach Bruce Hanson coached Owens on the varsity team as a sophomore and junior. It was Hanson who noticed Owens’ skills and moved him to the tight end position on offense.
“He has a good work ethic and he can catch the ball very well,” Hanson said. “We moved him around some, splitting him out wide as a tight end and even had him running the ball some. We knew right away he was a college-caliber player.”
Hanson said Owens has followed in the footsteps of former Yorktown football standout player John Crone, who played and excelled in college for the Division I University of Richmond team. Crone was a standout at multiple positions for Yorktown, including long snapper.
