He was a reluctant recruit as a youngster but since his belated introduction to football, Morris senior Erik Macklin has been in love with the game.

“When I was little, I didn’t really want to play organized football, but I’d play pick-up games with my cousins. One of them in particular, Reuben Lee who is to this day one of my role models, kept bugging me to join up and so I finally said yes but then kind of forgot about it until the first day of practice. My parents loaded me into the car, and I said, ‘where are we going?’ and they said, ‘football practice’ and after that first year I fell in love with it,” said Macklin.

A VYPE TOP 100 selectee for 2022, Macklin plays running back and inside linebacker for the Eagles but over the years has seen several positions according to his coach Robert “Bobo” Daniels.

“He’s a three-year starter and has played wherever we’ve needed him over the last four years. He’s been in the offensive line, defensive line, safety, running back and linebacker for us,” said Daniels. He’s just a solid kid who plays hard and does everything right off the field. He’s a team leader and is well liked by his teammates.”

Although his coach praises his leadership abilities, Erik sounds like he’s still growing accustomed to the responsibility.

“Being a senior leader is shocking to me because when I was a freshman, I thought this day would never come. It just seemed so far away. That year we didn’t really have great senior leaders, but I learned a lot from the juniors who really taught me about being a leader. They set good examples to follow and taught me that even though you’re a leader it shouldn’t be beneath you to do the little things too like pick up after practice. If the younger ones see you doing those things, they’ll respect you more when bigger things are at stake.”

In addition to football, Erik also runs track and finished third in the state last year in powerlifting in the 198-pound class. Though he has played a lot of sports in three years at Morris, his career highlight didn’t come until this year.

“In our first game against Kellyville, I had a special game. I ran the ball well and had a touchdown and had a lot of tackles (19).”

As he enters his senior year, he talked about his goals and his future.

“This year I’ve set a goal of at least 120 tackles at linebacker and want to leave something for this team to build on. I’d like to play college football and so far, have visited Harding University.”

In college, Erik says he would like to study business or sports management.