West Orange Bobcats tight end Jackson Hodor participates in elite camp for USA Football

WINTER GARDEN — Jackson Hodor already has the build of a high-school football player.

At 6-foot-1, 187 pounds, the Winter Garden teen would fit right in on the field for most any high school football game this fall.

Of course, Hodor isn’t a varsity football player just yet. At just 13 years old, he still has another year of middle school left before he will enroll at West Orange High School. 

Hodor’s size, though, is part of the reason he earned an invitation to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity this summer. Along with his good hands at tight end and his work ethic, Hodor was selected to participate in USA Football’s National Development Team program and competed in the 2015 National Development Games. 

The local teen, who plays his youth football for the West Orange Bobcats, spent June 29 through July 4 at Walsh University in Canton, Ohio, with some of the best youth football players in the country getting coached by the staff and volunteers at USA Football.

“It was a great experience — I’d say it was the best experience of my life because it was just football,” Hodor said. “Everybody was amazing. Everybody could make just incredible catches. … It inspired me a ton because I know that I have to be on their level … to have a chance to make it.”

Hodor, who earned an invite to the exclusive camp by way of his performance at a regional camp in March in Tampa, said his favorite part of the experience was being around so many like-minded teens who also are passionate about the game.

The experience included myriad training and scrimmage exercises, in addition to film study. Players stayed in dorms on the university’s campus and got three meals a day with a curfew to closely mimic what college football would entail.

“It’s a true experience of what college will really be like,” Hodor’s father, Don Desjardins, said. “There’s no moms and dads — you’ve kind of got to kiss them and say goodbye. … These kids are on a mission, and it shows him the level of these other kids, just how good these kids are.”

Along the way, Hodor made friends, including a running back from Wisconsin he roomed with during the weeklong camp. He said players keep in touch via social media.

The experience may not be over, either. Within the next month or so, Hodor will find out whether he has been selected to represent the USA in the International Bowl in February 2016 in Arlington, Texas, playing against Canada at Cowboy Stadium.

Back home, though, Jackson is preparing for his final season with the West Orange Bobcats and school at Bridgewater Middle School — which he will attend after having been at The First Academy from kindergarten through seventh grade.

Beyond his remarkable size for his age, Hodor works hard in the weight room and trains with Brian Stamper, a former SEC and NFL player, through Coach Tom Shaw Performance. 

Hodor said having size is one thing, but he needs strength and speed to match if he is going to be the player he hopes to be.

“Tight end is a blocking position first,” he said. “You have to be strong and have to be able to push defensive ends that might be bigger and stronger than you.”

That approach and work ethic, along with his size and hands, already have put Hodor on the radar of West Orange head coach Bob Head. Head, whose Warriors recorded their best season in program history in 2014, has observed Hodor while playing for the Bobcats and said it is the youth’s intangibles that stand out the most.

“Most importantly, it’s just his attitude — he wants to be a good football player,” Head said. “It excites me that guys that young are that excited about it. I can’t wait to get my hands on him.”

Despite his success on the gridiron, including two state championships with the Bobcats, Hodor is no one-sport wonder. He has played lacrosse for the West Orange Outlaws club team and The First Academy. Hodor said he enjoys lacrosse and that it has helped improve his hand-eye coordination and conditioning.

As a father, Desjardins said he greatly encourages Hodor to play both sports in hopes that it will help him become a more well-rounded athlete.

“You use different muscles doing different things in different sports,” Desjardins said. “I absolutely support multiple sports for these kids. … I think it’s a good match for him (football and lacrosse) and what he has to do with his hands.”

Hodor is also an excellent student. The rising eighth-grader has been recognized by the Duke Talent Identification Program and had a 4.89 GPA last year at The First Academy. He has already taken the SAT and scored a 1,520 and was a mainstay on the Headmaster’s Honor Roll while he was a Royal.

For someone with hopes of playing college ball, Hodor’s family has encouraged him to excel in school to increase his chances of achieving that dream — as well as his other dream of becoming an orthopedic surgeon.

“(I tell him), ‘You’re going to get to that next level by grades,’” Desjardins said. “He’s got to continue to work hard, and he knows that.”

It may be a couple of years still before Jackson Hodor takes the field for the West Orange varsity team on a Friday night. That doesn’t mean that Hodor — who is quick to give much of the credit for his success to his father and mother, Lisa — doesn’t dream about it, though.

“I am tremendously excited,” Hodor said. “I’ve been to some games here (at West Orange), and there are thousands of people here just for a high school football game.”

Contact Steven Ryzewski at [email protected].