A young man from Saint-François will play football for an American school

Louis Gendron is a 17 year old young man from Saint-François-de-la-Rivière-du-Sud. A football player since he was little, he has just learned that he will get closer to his dream of playing his sport in an American league, because the Clearwater Academy International college in Florida invites him to join its ranks in July. 2022.

Football has been part of Louis’ life for a very long time. He says he started playing when he was about first year of primary school at the Camp des Wolverines in Montmagny. However, he began to discover his potential in the Noir et Or program at Berthier/Saint-François La Francolière elementary school. The latter offers young people the opportunity to play football as an extracurricular activity.

Currently finishing high school, Louis played for the Commandeurs du Collège de Lévis in division 2 at the RSEQ juvenile level. He is a defensive lineman, he is 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 255 lbs.

Louis was to study human sciences at Cégep Garneau in Quebec City next fall in order to join the football team. Before deciding on this school, he mentions that he was in discussion with 17 CEGEPs as well as six schools in the United States that were interested in having him on their team. He had chosen Garneau because it was the team he had dreamed of being part of the Elans since childhood and because of the presence of coach Dominic Picard with whom he wanted to work.

His plans, however, drastically changed in March 2022, when he received a call from Clearwater Academy International, a private school in the Tampa Bay area of ​​Florida. The Clearwater Academy International Knights are the current defending SSIA State Champions of Florida. Louis explains that this offer was too important for him to refuse. He has not yet chosen in which field he will study, but since he particularly likes sports, he may be thinking of going into physiotherapy.

The young player explains that this prestigious establishment will allow him to get closer to his dream of playing in an American university league: “The number of players invited is very limited and I did not think I was in their plans. The team sends almost 100% of its graduates to the NCAA. »

Louis says he is very excited to know that he will join the ranks of such a team next July. He would already have a good command of English, although he recognizes that studying in this second language may be a challenge at first. He explains that what scares him the most at the moment is the heat he will have to endure during his training this summer.

Louis Gendron will therefore evolve at Clearwateur Academy for the next two school years.

While he has not yet started studying at the college level, two Canadian universities have already contacted him to show their interest in him joining their team in two years. They would be among the top six in the sport in Canada. Even if he says he is proud to already have these offers, Louis mentions that he would prefer to receive one from an American establishment in order to be able to realize his dream of playing in the NCAA, an American university league. The American coaches claim to be able to place it in the Power 5, that is to say among the five strongest teams in NCAA Division 1 FBS college football. He therefore intends to do his utmost in the next two years to achieve this.

be your own agent

Clearwater Academy International has just over 300 students. In order to get noticed by such a prestigious establishment, Louis Gendron had to find a way to make his exploits more visible.

It was the coaches of Clearwater Academy who contacted Louis to make him an offer. He explains that in order to get noticed by prestigious schools, he created an account on the social network Twitter. He shares videos, statistics, etc. in order to attract the attention of online trainers. He says he was spotted that way.

Several feats

Louis Gendron had several exploits to share on his social networks in recent years.

The Collège de Lévis team of which he was a member suffered only one defeat in the regular season and ranked 7th in Canada according to CanadaFootballChat. At the end of the season, the team received confirmation that they will play in Division 1 from next season.

Next year, Louis should be in the top 100 of the best players whose graduation is scheduled for 2024.

He was also invited to a CFC Showcase at TSN where he could demonstrate his potential.

He was elected to the provincial D2 all-star team last fall. He was also supposed to be part of Team Quebec for a Canadian championship, but he was a few weeks too old to be eligible.

Stay fit in winter

Louis is happy to be able to play in Florida, in part because he will be able to play all year round. With winter in Quebec, he cannot practice his sport half the year. To keep in shape, he does a lot of footwork and indoor training.

He considers himself lucky, as he was able to keep his form during the pandemic. The Collège de Lévis training room would have remained open most of the time, but he also had a lot of training equipment available at home.