You'd swear that headline was ripped straight from The Onion or some other satire site. But it isn't. It's absolutely true that Rivals.com has found a pair of sixth-graders — that was grade school when we were growing up — that it deems so talented at football that it must track them as part of the Class of 2021 already.
No, really. SI.com noted that Rivals is tracking sixth-graders for the first time after two were particularly impressive at a recent camp
Per Rivals.com, here is the scouting report on both:
Thornton is a 5-foot-11, 167-pound running back with great explosiveness and surprisingly good body control for a kid his size and age. Bryden, a small quarterback with a big arm is incredibly composed and very polished — and he can make every throw. And with a father standing nearly 6-foot-7, he may soon have the body to match his arm. Both of these young players were so impressive they were moved up to compete against the eighth grade prospects.
Maybe this is just par for the course and we shouldn't get bent out of shape. Plenty of athletes are identified as "elite" at this age in other sports. Still, it just feels weird in a sport like football — when these kids are many years away from physically maturing — to be calling someone a "pro style quarterback" or talking about how "polished" someone is.
Our daughter is in the 88th percentile for height. Maybe we can get Rivals to add her to the 2032 basketball database?
