Austin Kafentzis is only 16 years old, and carrying the label as the best high school quarterback in Utah at such a young age could easily create complacency in his mind. But Kafentzis is smart enough to realize his future successes will hinge on demonstrating the same traits that have allowed him to reach this point in the first place.
In particular, he stresses the value of simply showing up. Be at workouts. Be at practice. Be on time. Work hard. Lead by example.
"If you're showing up, you're going to learn something new every day," Kafentzis said. "Whether it's something in lifting, it's something on the field, a defense you're looking at, showing up is such a big part of everything. Especially with school, too. You show up, you're going to retain some information. That's why I don’t get how some of the people are failing. You have to try to fail. It's hard to fail if you're showing up."
Last week, Kafentzis showed up at one of Wisconsin's summer football camps, and good things continued to happen. He fell in love with the town, the football stadium and Badgers coaches and became the first commitment to Wisconsin in the Class of 2015.
"It's such a big relief," said Kafentzis, a junior-to-be at Jordan High School in Sandy, Utah. "I can go out and play football now and not have to worry. I still have to impress people. But I can play my sport and not have to worry about all these guys up in the stands."
Kafentzis' pledge to play at Wisconsin could be one of the most important commitments of new Badgers coach Gary Andersen's tenure. While Andersen has received oral commitments from high school players in Wisconsin, he also is showing the program can branch out, explore areas on the West Coast and grab some of the top players in the country. Kafentzis is the second Badgers commit from Utah, joining running back Ula Tolutau, who will be a Class of 2014 member.
Andersen, of course, is a Utah native and spent the last 16 years coaching at various schools in Utah, including the past four as head coach at Utah State.
Austin's father, Kyle Kafentzis, played defensive back for the Chicago Bears for one season in 1987 and said he was familiar with Wisconsin's football program even before his son committed to the Badgers.
"I know it's not in Siberia," Kyle said. "I'm telling you, kids from Utah think Wisconsin is like some place out in a desolate area. They have no idea. Gary is doing a great job of making them understand that it's not that way."
Austin Kafentzis already has created a resume on the field that rivals the best quarterbacks in the country. The 6-foot-1, 193-pounder was named the MaxPreps 2012 National Sophomore of the Year.
During his sophomore campaign, Kafentzis led Jordan High to a Class 5A state title, a game in which he tossed for three touchdowns and ran for three more. On the season, Kafentzis completed 200 of 313 passes (63.8 percent) for 3,018 yards and 32 touchdowns. He also ran for 1,884 yards and 26 touchdowns and earned Utah's Mr. Football award. In two seasons, he has accounted for 9,467 yards from scrimmage.
"His will to win, his desire is unmatched that I've seen so far," said Kyle Kafentzis, who also is Jordan High's defensive coordinator. "We've had some losses, and that's the part that's great about it. He puts the losses on his back. He doesn’t point a finger and say, 'Gosh, everybody didn’t do their part.' No, it's you didn’t do yours. You need to do a little better. He gets that without a doubt.
Austin Kafentzis turned down scholarship offers from BYU, Hawaii, Utah and Utah State to pick Wisconsin. And according to Kafentzis, one of Andersen's first scholarship offers after he accepted the Wisconsin job was to Kafentzis. He did not offer Kafentzis a scholarship while at Utah State -- the new Aggies coaching staff has since offered Kafentzis -- because Andersen knew he wouldn't be able to keep him at a smaller program.
Kafentzis said his high school team runs a spread offense, but his coach was open to new ideas. He also said the team would likely use some plays out of Wisconsin's offense to better prepare Kafentzis for the next level.
Kafentzis said he didn't anticipate committing to Wisconsin when he visited last week. His initial plan was to decide after completing his junior season. But when he walked on the field for player workouts with offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig, he knew he didn't want to look anywhere else.
"You can figure out a lot from the first 10 minutes of being with the coach," Kafentzis said.
Kyle Kafentzis noted how much it pained his son to be away from his high school teammates while they were putting in offseason conditioning work without him, which spoke to Austin's own work ethic. Kyle said Austin had missed four summer workouts during his high school career -- three last week while visiting Wisconsin and one the previous summer while visiting BYU.
"The head coach had to basically fight him to go down there," Kyle said. "Austin was like, 'I'm not missing practice.'"
Certainly, understanding the value of showing up has served Austin Kafentzis quite well in his football career. And he intends on maintaining that value for quite some time.
"You can always get better," Kafentzis said. "There's no limit to where you can stop, whether it's getting stronger, getting faster, being a student of the game, working on hitting receivers right where you need to on certain routes.
"You can always find something, no matter what. Even in the pros, there's always one little thing you can fix. That’s what I've got to work on. I've got to keep showing up and listening to my coaches."
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