GRANITE CITY – In just two short years, Granite City High School football quarterback Freddy Edwards has established himself as one of the St. Louis area’s top and most exciting players. His sophomore season was cut short by a shoulder injury, but Edwards is back and should be like a flash of lightning for the Warriors in 2018.
“It’s good, I’m back to 100 percent, and I’m ready to get the season started,” Edwards said in an interview during a recent preseason practice.
Edwards, a junior, is ready to show both college recruiters and local fans what he and the Warriors can really do.
“My plan this year is to show all the colleges what I can do this year, my junior season,” Edwards said. “They’re allowed to talk to me this year, so I’m pretty excited to see what I can do this year, and show people what Granite City is really and truly about.”
Edwards is a personification of a traditional Warrior trait: Great kids who work very hard and do their best every day.
“Yeah, Granite City always, we go out and do the best, but we have kids to come out and play football,” Edwards said, “and work hard in practice. If anyone came out today or any other day, they would see how hard we work. We have good captains, good leaders, good coaches. We just treat each other with respect, and I think that’s one of the reasons we work so hard in practice because we have this bond and brotherhood that I don’t think a lot of teams have. And this year, we’re all young, and we all know each other. So I think this year, we’re going to shock a lot of people. Just because of that brotherhood and bond that we have.
“And we’re all so close, we hang outside of practice,” Edwards also said. “And some teams, you usually just see them hang out in practice. But if you come to Granite City, you’ll see me with any one of these guys out here on the field, because we’re a family. We’re so close to each other, and I love these guys like they’re my brothers.”
The goals that Edwards has for both himself and the Warriors are very simple.
“For the team, I’m expected to, first, to do really well and shock a lot of people,” Edwards said, “and make the playoffs this year. Our season got cut short last year, and that (stunk) for all of us. And this season, we’re planning to come out with a winning record and make the playoffs. And for myself, it’s to be the leader of this team, and get us there. As a quarterback, you have to have these expectations for yourself and this team. But the expectations I have for myself is to also help this team. And I’m excited to see what we all can do. That’s our goal this year.”
The Warriors will be playing as an independent for the first time in nearly 40 years after leaving the Southwestern Conference at the end of the 2017-18 school year. Edwards doesn’t think that the changeover to independent status will affect the team.
“Honestly, I don’t think it affected our team at all,” Edwards said. “Our mentality is still the same – go out there and beat that team that we have to go against. And a lot of people said it might affect the kids on our team, and affect any other sport and team, but everyone I talked to, they just said that it’s competition. No one can just go into the games and say ‘we’re going to win this game.’ You’ve got to go out there and put your heart on the line, and you’re a body on the line, and work hard. I think that’s what we have to do against any team. It’s high school football. We’re going up against kids our age, and even older. So I don’t it affects us at all. We’re just going to go out there and play 100 percent and do our best.”
As far as college goes, Edwards has attended some camps and made unofficial visits. Under NCAA rules, he can’t be personally contacted until Sept. 1.
“I’ve been to a couple of colleges for camps and just to go up there for unofficial visits,” Edwards said. “I’ve been to (Missouri), I’ve been to Iowa State, I’ve been at Notre Dame. Not really a lot of coaches, but a lot of them have been talking to Coach (Brad) Hasquin, like Purdue and Clemson and Miami. I’m just waiting for September 1 for them to come down to talk to me or contact me. And I’m just ready for it.”
No one knows what will happen down the road, of course, but Edwards feels that he’s very blessed to be in the position he’s in, and is very hopeful that he’ll find the right school for him.
“Yes, sir, you never know. Anything can happen,” Edwards said. “But I’m just blessed to be in the position I am, and hope that I get the college I love the most, that I have a good bond with the coaches that I have in Granite. And that’s the main thing I look for, is the relationship I have with the coaches. That’s the one thing I’m looking for mostly.”
