Neuqua Valley’s Daniel Robinson played tackle football for the first time when he was 8 years old
That didn’t last long.
“I was really timid,” Robinson said. “So we stopped that, and I was just track and basketball.”
That changed after Robinson moved from Bellwood to Naperville when he was in eighth grade.
“I remember watching my first varsity game,” he said. “It was Neuqua Valley versus Metea. I always said that I want that to be me one day.”
Three years later, that is him. Robinson began playing football again during his freshman year and made the Wildcats’ varsity team this season.
Robinson got his first taste of football fame during Neuqua Valley’s homecoming game last week. DeKalb had just scored to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 14-6. On their next play from scrimmage, the 5-foot-11, 155-pound junior wide receiver ran 56 yards along the left sideline for a touchdown on a reverse. The Wildcats eventually prevailed 35-12 for their first win in five games this season.
“It was just great,” Robinson said. “It was a moment I dreamed about since moving to Naperville. That was my first touchdown, and it just felt like I was actually living my former dream.”
With that out of the way, Robinson wants to accomplish more.
“Now my dreams have gotten bigger,” he said. “I plan to go further.”
Nobody is doubting that he can. David Ricca, who is the coach of Neuqua Valley’s sophomore team and is an assistant for the track team, has worked with Robinson in both sports. Robinson is a sprinter who qualified for the state meet in the 400-meter relay and long jump last season.
“He’s got a heart and a drive to want to get better,” Ricca said. “Speed has always been what separates him from everybody.
“We have a pretty historic track program, and he’s rewritten most every frosh/soph record we have, and he keeps breaking them.”
But Robinson’s football abilities were raw at first. Speed is an asset only if the player can catch the ball, something Robinson had trouble doing until recently.
“Freshman year, he was OK, but he would drop more balls than you would expect from a high-caliber receiver,” Ricca said. “Sophomore year, he was better. But sometimes you were like, ‘Oh, man, you’ve got to catch that ball.’ But he worked hard.”
Indeed, Robinson kept at it even when his body balked. He suffered a pulled hamstring during the sectional in May, and that hampered him at state. The injury also prevented him from running routes over the summer. But Robinson didn’t stop working.
“He’s not satisfied with being fast,” Ricca said. “He’s like, ‘OK, I’m fast, but I need to get better hands.’ When he was injured in the summer, he was getting hundreds of passes every day from Tom Trayser, our receivers coach. He couldn’t run, but he could catch.”
Neuqua Valley football coach Bill Ellinghaus has been pleased with the results. In four games, Robinson has 10 receptions for 140 yards and three carries for 60 yards.
“He’s super, super fast, and he did a great job of battling through that hamstring injury,” Ellinghaus said. “We just nursed it, but he caught at least 100 balls a day in practice. It really helped his hands, and because of that, he’s a kid that’s playing with a lot of confidence right now.
“He’s a tremendous weapon for us.”
Robinson said his improvement isn’t so much physical as mental.
“I feel like all of these things that I am doing now I was capable of doing before,” he said. “It’s just the mental aspect has changed, the way I approach the game.
“I’m no longer afraid of making mistakes. I’m going 100% not worried about ‘what if I mess up.’ I’m just completely confident and trust that I’ve put in the work and I deserve to be in the spot that I am now.”
Robinson has potential in both track and football, but it’s the latter sport that inspires him.
“My favorite sport is football,” he said. “I like way more the feeling of scoring. It’s a completely different vibe. I also like the physical aspect of it versus track.
“I’m probably better known as a track athlete, especially because I haven’t had as much time within football as I have had in track. I started track when I was 5 years old. I think I’m showing I’m good at both.”
Ellinghaus said Robinson will be a force going forward.
“Football is relatively new to him,” Ellinghaus said. “If he just continues to work on it, with his speed, he’s got Division I potential in football.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
