Elite '19 OT Sean Rhyan discusses his Stanford offer and visit
Sean Rhyan of San Juan Capistrano High (San Juan Hills, CA) has an uncommon story for a football recruit. The talented 2019 offensive tackle visited Stanford July 28 and has been offered by the Cardinal.
Rhyan is a new arrival to football and even more so to the often odd world of being a recruit, which he’s not sure he’s on board with and may never be. Rhyan grew up a rugby and baseball player. The 6-foot-5, 300-pound athlete also regularly surfs and has dabbled in everything from judo to playing violin.
Considering his varied interests, it is not a surprise what stood out to Rhyan as a highlight of his time on The Farm.
“Probably the most important thing is the school,” he said. “The school is beautiful. I met a couple professors during the lunch … and the professors were very interesting. I think I found a field that I would like to study in college (after) talking with a civil engineer.”
Rhyan has less than two seasons of experience as a varsity football player, but it took only five games into his prep career to get his first offer. It appears to have been a completely unexpected event for Rhyan.
“I’m still in that in-between stage of coming to the reality of the fact that I’m getting college paid for at great schools because I play football,” he said. “And (I started) just to try it out my first year (in high school). I came to San Juan and sat out so I only played like five games. And then South Carolina was the first offer I got and I was like, ‘Wow.’ They started coming and that shocked me.”
Rhyan recalled the start of his football career in the eighth grade at Capistrano Valley Christian Schools: “I was right tackle and started. First play of my football career I got pancaked by a D-end. I was like, ‘Oh, man, that’s not going to happen again.’ The next play I kind of hit him and I was like, ‘That was somewhat fun.’ So … I like hitting people on the line. That was fun. But I also enjoy tackling people, because that’s also fun. It attracted me in that way.”
Rhyan is ranked No. 101 overall in Rivals.com’s first rankings for 2019 and he also has offers from USC, UCLA, Washington, Oregon, Cal and Arizona State. But he doesn’t think he’ll ever really think of himself as a football recruit. The 16 year old does not have a Twitter account, which stands out nowadays.
“No, I don’t think I will,” he said. “Technically I don’t think it really has started, yet, because coaches aren’t allowed to talk to me until September. I don’t think I’ll get used to this but I think that’s a good thing.”
Rhyan is thinking about having to take a bit off his plate given his new focus on football. That may require him to give up rugby for a time. He played sevens this summer with the San Clemente Tritons and thinks college football coaches would like what they saw if they watched him play.
“I think if they came out to watch me play rugby they would see that I can run with the ball and I can track players on a rugby field and tackle them,” he said. “It’s different than football because I’m stuck on the line, but in rugby I’m open to run and tackle.”
Rhyan’s ability to accomplish that while being a pretty good-sized kid was helped by working with his father, Steve. His father has a masters degree in exercise physiology from San Diego State and has worked with Sean since he was a young kid.
“Although I didn’t know it, he was almost preparing me to excel in sports,” Sean said. “I used to run in the sand and he’d let me do things and figure it out. He’d help me fix it. Our garage is basically a weight room.”
Steve became a professional motocross and supercross racer when he was 15. But there is little chance Sean will follow onto the race track.
“He will not let me get one (a motorbike),” Sean said. “That was a no from the get-go.”
College coaches would probably be quick to agree. Who will be coaching him and where is a long way from being decided, but Stanford made a good first impression.
“Stanford is totally elite,” Rhyan said. “The professors there are very interesting. I haven’t talked to professors at any other college, yet. It’s a great school. The weight room was great. I liked the strength trainer there (Shannon Turley). As for a college experience, I don’t know what I want or what I’m looking for, yet.”