Reggie Bonnafon has never started a varsity high school football game but after this weekend, he’s already got two major college scholarship offers.
Bonnafon is a quarterback at Louisville (Ky.) Trinity that will be entering his junior season in 2012. Though his experience is limited, his talent is not. At any other program in the country, Bonnafon would likely be well-decorated by now but at Trinity – one of the top high school programs in the country – he’s still waiting his turn.
As a junior, Bonnafon will finally be installed into the starting lineup, but not at his true position of quarterback, rather at wide receiver due to the return of senior starter Travis Wright. Nonetheless, Bonnafon has already showed enough to earn his first offer on Friday from the hometown program of Louisville and one day later, Illinois joined in.
“[Louisville] wanted me to come up for a visit and about ten minutes into the visit, I sat down with Coach (Charlie) Strong and Coach (Vance) Bedford and they said they wanted to offer me,” Bonnafon said on Saturday. “Louisville’s pretty high on my list. I’ve taken a lot of visits up there before. I was pretty speechless for a while. I was really blessed with the opportunity so I’m going to keep working hard.”
Bonnafon has flashed some elite ability just in a backup role at Trinity but the Louisville and Illinois staffs have been able to confirm that ability up close and personal.
“Last year I went to their camp and I had one of the best showings I’ve ever had,” he said. “I was shocked about my performance at the camp. Ever since then they’ve been kind of high on me.”
Recently at the Ohio Elite 11 regional, Bonnafon competed against some of the top quarterback talent in the country and looked right at home spinning the football with the best. But Bonnafon also has elite athleticism and he certainly has the ability to play other positions at the next level.
Despite those additional talents and despite his limited experience, Bonnafon’s first two offers are for him to play under center.
“Louisville is definitely for quarterback,” he said. “They already told me that there’s no other position they want me to play. Illinois offered me as a quarterback but said I could play any other positions.”
This fall, Bonnafon will be a busy man on the field. He’ll start opposite four-star wide receiver James Quick but will still make plenty of cameo appearances under center in situational settings. All of that activity is doing nothing if not getting him in great shape.
“It’s pretty tough right now, the conditioning part,” he said. “I’m probably in the best condition I’ve been in my life. I’m running routes and then coming in and making throws but I’m getting used to receiver. Going up against (teammate and class of 2013 Louisville commit) Ryan White helps you out because there aren’t too many cornerbacks that are as good as him in this area.”
As he continues to work out with his team, Bonnafon has plans of camping at Louisville next weekend, while also planning on hitting up Vanderbilt, Illinois, Cincinnati and possibly Michigan State.
- Barton Simmons
- National Recruiting Analyst - 247Sports