March 2, 2021
It’s the summer of 2020. The entire world is in shambles. School might not even reopen in the fall. And a high school football season? That’s just a wild dream.
Senior year might not go to plan, but a future outside of Sumter, SC, awaits Justus Boone.
So, while most people his age were still sound asleep in their beds, Florida’s freshman defensive lineman had already been training for hours. His principal regularly passed him running on the side of the road while on his 7 a.m. drive to work.
And when his high school coach saw him in the fall, he immediately knew Boone put the work in over the summer. Coach Mark Barnes could not see his players at all from the time of the shutdown in March until mid-August. Without summer workouts, he had no idea what to expect.