Glendale junior defensive end Kellen Lindstrom is one of the most heavily recruited athletes in Ozarks history and he’s had one goal in mind for his entire life.
“Growing up baseball has always been what I wanted to do. I wanted to play baseball in college,” Lindstrom said.
That is until his junior football season.
“I just was able to have a really good junior season and put some good stuff on film,” Lindstrom said.
Coaches were impressed. By his size at 6’5” 240 pounds, His ability, “They like the way I’m built, they like my film, they like my motor and drive,” he said. And his knowledge of the game, “The I.Q. level of his game is what’s taken him to the next step,” said Glendale assistant coach Maty Mauk.
That all led to his first offer.
“Thanksgiving weekend I get my first offer from Wisconsin and then it progressed. The month of January I actually had 16 offers,” Lindstrom said.
He currently has 30 Division I football offers, 27 of them from some of the largest college football programs in the country.
“Alabama, LSU, Oregon, USC, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas,” Lindstrom said.
And that’s not all, he also has offers from Michigan, Notre Dame, Auburn, Miami, Kansas, Washington State, Stanford, and Iowa State to name a few more.
Coach Maty Mauk played at Mizzou and knows Kellen has what it takes to play at that level.
“Shane Ray, Kony Ealy, Michael Sam all these guys worked hard. He’s got that size,” said Mauk.
So, what goes into this big decision?
“Of course, all these places have great facilities and great programs, but I’m kind of looking for the underside of the program,” Lindstrom said. “Is it like a family? Is it a pro-style team? What defense do they run? I mean, can I go to a place where my parents and I can think that I’ll be taken care of for five years?”
“It’s a big decision. Everyone wants you. All these guys are going to throw their pitches, it’s a business to everybody, but who truly sits down and wants to know you?” Mauk added.
Kellen is also coached by Super Bowl Champion Grant Wistrom, a good mentor through this process.
“Talk with Grant on the phone every once in a while about things like this. Here in the next month or so I’m going to get together with him, Maty (Mauk), coach Mike Mauk, and Ben (Mauk) and kind of figure out which places that would be best to try to narrow the list down,” Lindstrom said.
Kellen says he doesn’t want it to be long before he chooses a home – as he hopes to make a decision before his senior football season.
