DALLAS — The top 150 football prospects in the nation converged at the Dream All-American Bowl, culminating with a game on Monday, January 14 at AT&T Stadium. Among them were two Wisconsin football standouts: Brown Deer High School junior Joe Johnson and Riverside High School senior Kevin Brooks.
The weekend event hosted by Dream Sports Group included a football skills combine, an awards ceremony and three different games on Monday: one for middle schoolers, another for 9th to 11th-grade high schoolers, and a senior game.
Johnson and Brooks both told WTMJ they were grateful and optimistic when they were confirmed to be invited.
“I was very excited to go to Dallas and showcase my talents, and be able to get exposure and get recruited by college athletes,” Johnson said. “I’ve never had an opportunity to display my talents on a national level with other athletes and see what the competition would be like on a higher level outside of Wisconsin.”
Though he’s in his senior year, this is only Brooks’ first year playing football.
“I know I’m talented, [and] I had to showcase my talents in a short amount of time,” Brooks said. “I’m just grateful. I only had one year of film, and being able to come here… It’s really important to me.”
Johnson, a junior, said one of his goals was to show people there are great athletes in the Wisconsin football community.
“We’re here,” Johnson said. “We’re here to stay. It’s a lot of great athletes in Wisconsin that not many people know about. Talent… it’s talent regardless of wherever it’s at. Everybody will get their chance to display it. Just trust in God and your opportunity will come.”
He took advantage of his opportunity and he was recognized for being a three-star athlete after the football skills combine on Saturday. Johnson said it felt very nice to be recognized for his talents.
“[It was a] good confidence booster for the rest of the weekend and how I carried out myself on the field,” Johnson said.
When it was time for the big game on Sunday, neither of the athletes received the playing time or touches they would’ve preferred, but they learned what playing against top competition feels like.
“My biggest takeaway is I have more work to do,” Johnson said. “I went in closed eyes, didn’t know what was going to happen, but I persevered and now I know what I have to work on and what I don’t have to work on… There’s a lot of room for improvement.”
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This is exactly what the Founder and CEO of Dream Sports Group, Shannon Riley envisioned when he first created the Dream All-American Bowl five years ago.
“You know they might be from a small town or overlooked, so having a chance to come out to our game and compete against kids from these blue blood states like Florida, Texas, California, Ohio… that can be what someone needs to get to the next level,” Riley said.
Riley told WTMJ he was overlooked during his football recruiting process coming from the smaller state of Delaware, so he wanted to make sure people had that opportunity moving forward.
The Dream All-American Bowl also took place in Los Angeles, CA in late December at SoFi Stadium, and they’re looking to host more games at other NFL stadiums as well.
Brooks, a wide receiver, called his first game in an NFL stadium a “different experience,” while Johnson, a running back, told WTMJ it felt good to be on that field.
“Can’t get much better than that honestly,” Johnson said. “It felt good. It felt right… Thanks everyone for the opportunity.”
At the end of the experience, he felt that he was a good leader, received great advice and coaching, and made Wisconsin football fans proud.
“To go out there was enough,” Johnson said. “Not many people from Wisconsin went, so to represent our state was a different experience.”
Both student-athletes will use this experience to fuel them as they go towards whatever comes next in their football careers.
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