McDonogh junior Roman Braglio, a 6-foot-4, 235-pound Division-I, strong side defensive end recruit, told VarsitySportsNework.com on Monday that he will forgo this spring’s lacrosse season in order to concentrate on preparing himself for college football.
“I’m not going to play lacrosse this year, and my lacrosse coach already knows that,” said Braglio, who, as an Eagles’ defender, was listed on the Inside Lacross Rising Sophomore Watchlist in August, 2009.
“I pretty much made the decision at the start of this year. Actually, I had it in mind during the summer,” said Braglio. “Once I realized this summer that there were schools interested in me for Division I football, I began to consider that as a decision. I want to continuously improve myself for football.”
Braglio clocked a 4.65-second 40-yard dash during a summer combine, registered 10 sacks and made 67 tackles for last year’s Eagles’ football team — totals that earned him All-MIAA A Conference honors.
West Virginia and Maryland have offered scholarships to Braglio, while Boston College, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Tennessee and Pittsburgh are among those which have expressed interest in his talents.
“Coach Dom Damico said that a lot of colleges are calling him for my tapes. I was just offered by West Virginia yesterday and re-offered by Maryland this week,” said Braglio, who carries a 3.2 grade point average.
“So everything is getting so busy for football during the spring, and I’ve got football camps that I can go to,” said Braglio. “I mean, I got invited to the Rivals.com elite camp in New Jersey in the middle of March. So I will be training for that and going to that to get my moves down and my footwork back up.”
Also a MIAA champion wrestler who was twice a runner-up at the Maryland Private Schools Tournament, Braglio said that he will stick with that sport, this, after having competed at 285 pounds or heavyweight as a junior.
“I spoke to Coach Pete Welch before the season, and he said that he would need me for the team and for the MIAA’s and stuff like that, so I stuck with wrestling. We made a deal with Coach Welch that all year long, I would work out for football before practice,” said Braglio, who competed at 215 pounds as a sophomore.
“We agreed that I wouldn’t do all of the heavy stuff and the wrestling conditioning stuff that would make me lose weight. But we said that I would still do all of the technique stuff,” said Braglio. “So I would work out lifting weights before practice for an hour and then come into the wrestling room after that. A day or two before the match, I would come in for the full practice and get everything down. So I was lifting through the whole wrestling season, which was definitely rough.”
Braglio has a career mark of 73-39 with 32 pins on the mats, including a record of 30-5, with 13 pins this year.
Braglio was a third place finisher at January’s prestigious Mount Mat Madness Tournament at Catonsville Community College, an event considered to be Maryland’s most difficult wrestling invitational.
At MMM, Braglio defeated Good Council’s Steve Snyder, whom he lost to at private schools states. Braglio will compete at this weekend’s National Preps Wrestling Tournament at Lehigh University.
“I didn’t think that I would do too well as a heavyweight, being so much lighter than everyone else. I weigh between 230 and 235 pounds right now. But I ended up being second in the private schools state tournament,” said Braglio.
“I was a match away from placing at National Preps last year. So I’m hoping that if everything works out, I’ll be able to improve on that this year,” said Braglio. “I’m going to pretty much start training for football again right after the wrestling season.”
