Former Northern Heights standout quarterback Kenneth Bronson won’t try to continue his prolific passing career at Emporia State.
After signing with the Hornets last spring, Bronson decided this summer that he didn’t have the motivation to become a college football player. So after a meeting last week with coach Garin Higgins, Bronson decided to leave the team.
“I don’t really know how to explain it,” Bronson said. “Everyone asks me this, and I don’t have a dead-set answer. I guess I just don’t like it enough to put in all the time and effort that comes with playing college football, compared to high school football. It is pretty much a job, and I didn’t enjoy the game enough to want to put all that time and effort in. And I didn’t want to be wasting Coach Higgins’ or the coaching staff or the football team’s money on my scholarship if I’m not gonna give it 110 percent.”
Leading a high-powered spread offense at Heights, Bronson threw for more than 2,000 yards in both his junior and senior seasons, earning All-Flint Hills League and Gazette All-Area selections. But he was probably going to be buried on the Hornet depth chart for the foreseeable future, with incumbent senior starter Andre Sloan El and sophomore backup Zach Rampy both returning and other quarterbacks, such as sophomore Sheldon Smith, also ahead of him.
Bronson said around mid-July, he felt unmotivated to continue his career.
“I know there’s still summer workouts, and I didn’t really give it a full chance, because we never really started camp or anything,” he said. “But even then, I just felt like, ‘I don’t feel like I’m devoted enough and want to play enough to follow through with this.’”
Bronson said the meeting with Higgins occurred Aug. 5. Higgins couldn’t be reached on Thursday.
“He asked to have the meeting, and he kind of just asked me what was going on, and I told him,” Bronson said. “He understood me. He wasn’t gonna sit there and force me to play if I didn’t want to. He understood that, and he just gave me the decision if I don’t want to, then (he didn’t) want to force me to.”
When asked whether he was closing the door on playing competitively again, Bronson said, “you never know,” but said Higgins didn’t say anything about leaving the door open for a possible return at ESU.
Bronson will focus on his classes at ESU this fall; he believes he’ll end up majoring in business. He said he’d like to apologize to fans and others who supported him over the years.
“It’s kind of a hard decision, because I don’t want to let those people down,” he said. “But in the end, it was for me, not for them.”
madpoet (anonymous) says...
I think this shows a great deal of maturity on Bronson's part. College is hard enough without playing a sport, too. I'm glad he stepped aside to let another have a chance at the scholarship money. I wish him luck in whatever he does. I think he'll go far.
August 14, 2009 at 3:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
admireed (anonymous) says...
With all the time it now takes to be a college athlete, even a high school player, I do not know if I would play either. 50+ years ago it was way different.
August 14, 2009 at 3:06 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
Do whats right for you Kenny, hope things work out good for you.
August 14, 2009 at 5:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
The most important things in life are not things or sports. The last thing most young people do not know, is what to put first . After lettering my freshmen year on a national ranked team, I made a decision to retire. I only weighed 155 and I was sponsored by ACE BANDAGE COMPANY.
August 14, 2009 at 10:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )