Not often does Hawaii work their way into a headline for anything involving football. When it does, chances are the news is either (A) really good, (B) really bad, or (C) just really bizarre.
This story encompasses all of (C) and a sizeable chunk of (B).
Titan Lacaden is a quarterback who plays football in Hawaii, and just received a D1 scholarship to go to the University of Hawaii. He’s also eleven years old. Here’s Titan tweeting out the big news:
The verbal scholarship offer makes Lacaden the youngest person to ever get a D1 scholarship, but only by one year. Just last week, new FAU head coach Lane Kiffin offered a scholarship to a 6th grader.
Titan Lacaden is the younger brother of Nevada linebacker Jake Lacaden. Nick Rolovich is Hawaii’s current head coach, but also was the offensive coordinator at Nevada where older brother Jake plays. That family connection helped get Rolovich a chance to see Titan play.
According to Titan’s father, Frank Lacaden, “(Rolovich) said he likes Titan and what he does. We both agreed that he’s different, he carries himself differently. They said they want to offer a scholarship and asked me how I felt about it.
“I know what my older son went through in the recruiting process and it’s difficult, especially with us being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. So when opportunity knocks, you answer the door.”
No question eleven year olds tend to carry themselves differently. It also puts quite the twist on things when the person answering opportunity’s knock is barely old enough to answer the door.
But no matter, Frank Lacaden takes the offer seriously, saying, “When you offer someone, I take it serious. I do understand he’s 11 years old, but we take it serious. Here on the island, we keep our nose on the ground and keep grinding, so that’s what he’s going to keep doing, keep grinding.”
At this rate, the college football “grind” is going to end up with a recruiter giving a verbal offer to an incubator.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn
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