For Jaiden Woodbey, The Recruiting Process Is Just The Beginning
St. John Bosco High School (Ca.) safety Jaiden Woodbey knew that he had the potential to be a good football player when he scored his first touchdown at the age of nine or 10; his quarterback threw him a pass he caught in the end zone. It was his brother, however, whom he says got him started in football. Jaiden’s brother only played little league football.
Woodbey said that family and religion are two things that he can always count on for his success and the toughest change he had to overcome was playing football with new teammates as a freshman but now as an upperclassman, he wants to be one of the kids he grew up playing with going off to play Division I football.
“I grew up in Fontana, California [up north]. I was playing with kids older than me and now I got to see all of the people that I played with, they’re going to big name colleges and stuff so it’s all good,” he said.
Woodbey is a four star safety in the 2018 recruiting class. According to 247 Sports, he is the sixth best safety and sixth best player in California. He recently picked up a scholarship offer from the University of Washington June 8. That offer gave him 15 total offers. Some of his others include: UCLA, USC, Alabama, California-Berkeley, Florida, LSU, Michigan and more.
“I like all of the colleges so far. I haven’t taken my visits yet so I don’t know which school I’d like more at this time,” he said regarding interest in one school over the others.
He wants to be able to live around the campus of where he goes to school, be at a school that has a good marketing or finance program, his majors of choice, and on the football field, he wants to be a part of a football program that produces NFL players at the safety position and one that has a winning pedigree.
Woodbey believes his aggressiveness on the field, his field awareness, will to win and his leadership skills are the best parts of his game and said he has to work on being quicker, more aggressive toward the ball and learn how to get in and out of his breaks faster.
As a junior at St. John Bosco this season, he wants to get more than five interceptions and win a championship. Last year, he recorded 55 tackles (35 solo), two tackles for loss, one interception, two pass break ups, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and a blocked punt.
“What I’m going to miss the most is that there’s talent at every position in everything that we do. There’s a lot of competition, I’m going to miss the competition. One thing I do want to leave is letting everyone know I was the leader of the team, I was there for everybody and I just want to leave an impact that no one else has done at the school,” Jaiden Woodbey said about what he will look back on when his time is done at St. John Bosco.