Why Brian Robinson chose to play one last high school football season at Westerville North
Brian Robinson’s Friday routine is like clockwork.
After a 4:30 wake-up call and a prayer, the 2024 defensive end first makes his bed before doing 200 pushups, 200 crunches and 100 curls and heading to the gym. He then eats and watches film to go over key concepts of the game before heading to the field.
This is the lifestyle of the defensive end he wants to become, giving everything to become an impact player at the college level. With that came 40-plus Division I offers — including one from Kentucky he would eventually commit to — and a spot in the 2024 All-American Bowl.
But on Friday night at Dublin Scioto High School, having just played in Westerville North’s final game of the 2023 regular season, Robinson wept.
While his preparation is set to continue until he joins the Wildcats in January, Robinson’s high school football career is complete, as he is unable to participate in the Warriors’ postseason run after transferring from Austintown Fitch near Youngstown.
Standing on the football field with his college football career officially in front of him, all Robinson could think about was North and what his brief time in the program meant to him.
“I love them. I appreciate them,” Robinson said. “They accepted me and welcomed me into the Westerville North family, seeing me as a leader, following me. Just doing the small things: making (their) beds up in the morning.”
What Brian Robinson brought to Westerville North
Stanley Jackson was admittedly initially skeptical of what Robinson could bring to North.
He knew Robinson as a 6-foot-5, 255-pound behemoth who already held the college football world’s attention. But the North coach also saw potential “baggage”: a “highly-ranked kid coming in whose dad’s pretty involved that could create a lot of issues for your team.”
“Do we really want that? Do we want that distraction for a one-year player?” Jackson said. “For us, obviously, if you move in, you’re a part of our football team, but we sort of had to figure out how to navigate that space and help the team and help Brian and help the family because at the end of the day our goal is not to build football players. Our goal is to build men. In the meantime, if I can build a good football player, great.”
George Robinson, Brian's father, said all he ever wanted was to help Brian reach his dream.
And from age 12, George said, Brian’s dreams were clear. Short term, he wanted to become a freshman All-American and first-round NFL draft pick. Long term, he wanted to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.
“At that moment, I made him a promise,” George Robinson said. “I said, ‘Son, if you do everything you’re supposed to do, I promise, I’ll do the rest.’ ”
Initially starting as a quarterback at Campbell Memorial High School, Brian transferred to Fitch and moved to defensive end. With a senior quarterback already in place on varsity, he was “adamant,” George said, that he didn’t want to be on the bench.
George thought Brian was “crazy” when he pitched the position change as a 160-pound sophomore. And to show how much work he thought it would take for Brian to become a defensive end, George told him to watch “300” and “Conan the Barbarian” and “times that by 10.”
Instead, Brian bought in.
“The movie ‘300,’ he asked me, ‘What did you get from that movie?’ ” Robinson said. “I said, ‘It’s the passage to manhood. There is no sympathy. The kid had to go out with the spear and had to kill the saber-tooth tiger. If he came back, he was a man. If he didn’t he was just dead.’
“And then ‘Conan the Barbarian’ I learnt the process, the consistency. If I consistently do what I’m supposed to, I’ll become that monster. And that’s what I’m doing.”
In two years at Fitch, Robinson blossomed into a top-100 player and top-10 defensive end in the country per 247Sports’ composite ranking, securing the attention of programs such as Michigan, Maryland, Penn State and Tennessee.
As he finishes his high school career, Robinson does not have an offer to play at Ohio State.
“(Defensive) end, it’s not just a position. It’s a lifestyle,” Robinson said. “This is a lifestyle. Football is just a tool to help me become a better man.”
Brian Robinson leaves legacy at Westerville North
Jackson was introduced to the lifestyle as soon as Robinson enrolled.
“I’ve watched this kid play up close and personal. He can’t be blocked in high school,” Jackson said, describing Robinson as a player that can “play anywhere from the nose to the tackle to the end.”
In Robinson, Jackson saw a nearly finished product who had more to learn.
With a North coaching staff filled with former college players who had “at least a coffee break in the NFL,” Robinson, Jackson said, learned how to watch film and prepare for games more effectively, developing more intricate details of how to play each spot on the defensive line.
But Jackson says Robinson, who initially considered reclassifying to the 2023 class before moving to Westerville, impacted North more than North impacted Robinson.
“He could be a completely different kid based on the amount of hype and scrutiny and notoriety he has,” Jackson said. “He could be arrogant. But he’s not. He’s a hard worker, he’s humble and he has had a positive impact on all of our program. Our kids have seen what he built himself into.”
From the moment he joined North’s roster as a senior, Robinson saw an opportunity to lead.
“They get to see the consistency and the level that I train at,” Robinson said. “It’s one thing for someone to speak it. It’s another thing for someone to show.”
It’s something he and his family wanted to continue to fight for.
According to the Ohio High School Athletic Association, Robinson was initially deemed eligible for only five games at North for his senior season after transferring from Fitch, a ruling that was eventually confirmed after being upheld by the organization's appeals panel.
The Robinson family hired legal counsel, “which prevented the OHSAA from enforcing the membership’s transfer regulations” and was “ultimately settled through the legal process,” the organization said in a statement.
Watching his son play his final high school football season, George said North provided Brian with a “fresh start,” allowing him to renew his confidence as a defensive end before playing in the SEC.
For George, that was his goal all along.
“It will be a walk in the park for him,” George Robinson said. “I told him ‘Son, you’ll never work this hard a day in your life. And I’m not telling you this to stop you from working. I’m just telling you this so when you get to college, you don’t think I lied to you.’ Because when he gets to college, he’s going to be like, ‘Dad, this all?’ ”
But Brian Robinson doesn’t want the next level to be any easier. He wants it to help him as he transitions to what he’s been preparing for since he set his football goals at age 12.
“The path we took and the process we went through will slow everything else down,” Robinson said. “Because if I understand it as a 17-year-old and handle it very well, just imagine what I’ll do when I’m 19, 20.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Brian Robinson finishes high school football career at Westerville North
