Westfield’s Bryce Coleson, left, poses for a photo with his friend Breck Race. Submitted photo

For most athletes in the area, football season is over and won’t resume until next summer.

However, that is not the case for Bryce Coleson, because at the Coleson house football is 365 days a year.

Coleson, the son of Todd and Tara, is a seventh-grader at Westfield Academy and Central Schools. He is currently a member of the North Carolina Football University All-Stars and will be playing in the national championships in Naples, Florida from Dec. 17-21.

Football University has been around since 2007 and puts together camps for football players in middle school and high school. The program has trained more than 100,000 student-athletes with NFL-level coaching and instruction. Among the notable athletes to attend these camps is recent No. 1 pick Trevor Lawrence.

“It’s our first year involved with the organization,” Tara said. “The closest camp to us was Columbus, Ohio. We went to it and loved it.”

After the Columbus camp, the Colesons attended camps in Charlotte, Atlanta and Boston. At the camp in Charlotte, Bryce caught the eye of the director and was asked to try out for the North Carolina team. Before the tryout, however, Bryce had impressed them so much at the camp that he received a ticket saying he would be on the team and he did not have to try out.

Since making the team in North Carolina, the Colesons have been traveling from Westfield to Charlotte so Bryce can get closer to his dreams. Bryce’s dream is to become a Division I football player and these camps will steer him into the right direction.

“He wants to go to a Division I school to play football,” stated Tara. “Even when it’s not football season, he is training. We’re trying to set him up with the best opportunity to achieve his goals.”

The constant traveling requires a high level of commitment, but that hasn’t slowed Bryce and his academics. Bryce recently made the honor roll and Westfield has been very supportive of his football endeavors while he has kept up with his schoolwork.

Competing in the Football University program will not only help Coleson get better, but he will help the Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton football team in the future when he plays for them some day. Currently on the Westfield modified team, Bryce has been a two-way player on the offensive and defensive lines and for the North Carolina All-Stars Bryce has been starting at center.

Bryce may not be the biggest kid at 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds, but he was still able to snag the starting center job. The tackles and guards on the team with Coleson double his weight, but that doesn’t stop him from competing right next to them in the trenches.

“He’s blocking kids double the size of him successfully,” added Tara. “He’s fearless, he sees a 300-pound kid in front of him and he just goes right after him.”

Bryce’s efforts on the line helped his team advance to the national championships after a 46-40 overtime victory against Central Carolina in the regional game. Later this month, they will continue the season in Naples, but no matter the result Bryce’s football season will not stop there as he will continue to train all year round.