Click for Adrian Valona Highlights
2016 Gig Harbor RB Adrian Valona helped lead his team into the state playoffs the past two years, but so far, he has just one offer to play football at the next level.
“So far, University of Jamestown, an NAIA school, is the only school to offer me,” Valona told Northwest Elite Index recently. “Carroll College, another NAIA school has been showing me interest and talking to me and Portland State contacted me after our season ended and I still have some contact with Montana Tech as well.”
As a junior in 2014, Valona helped lead the Tides to a 9-2 record by rushing for over 1,200 yards and 25 touchdowns and he had hoped to have an even better senior season, but he finished with close to 600 yards and eight scores after missing six games with a knee injury.
“I got hit late in our third game and I had a slight tear in my meniscus,” Valona noted. “I got the surgery pretty quickly and it healed up fast, but there was swelling that needed to go down, so I just had to wait for it which was tough.
“I’m back 100% now and I hope someone takes a chance on me.”
At 5’8″ and weighing in at a solid 200 pounds, Valona is a hard-running tailback with good vision, but more importantly, he loves to grind things out, rarely bouncing things outside.
“I don’t go down with the first hit,” Valona told NEI back in the spring. “I get most of my yards after contact. We don’t keep stats on it, but if you watch my film, I think you will see a guy who isn’t easy to bring down and I just get better with the more contact I get.”
Valona is an underrated player with a lot to offer the right school. He’s versatile enough to handle both blocking and receiving duties in attition to what he does as a ball-carrier, but now his patience is being tested.
“I know I can help someone, but it’s sorta out of my control now,” Valona said. “I’m just going to keep working, staying in shape and make sure I am ready to go if someone does call.”
NEI will continue to keep tabs on Valona over the next six or seven weeks as he approaches Signing Day and we will update news on him as it happens.
