John Thermidor, "No Struggle, No Progress"

#84 Fresh and always ready.. John Thermidor

by, Jasmine Ng,

“With hard work I can get anywhere I want to where I put my mind to it.” – John Thermidor

Next Level Combines continues to follow Florida’s native John Thermidor on life after being a standout at Jones High School. The Defensive end, Outside Linebacker now attends Globe Institute of Technology in New York and he is currently majoring in Business Management and Computer Science. John is expecting to graduate in the fall of 2015. Here is a overview from his first year of playing college football.

John continues to play football at the college level in hopes that he can transfer to a bigger university in order to gain the education and attention that his game play shows.  He now wears the jersey number 84 in every game for Globe Institute of Technology. For John, his season as a true freshman was amazing. John averaged six tackles and two point fives tackles per game. To him, it was an honour coming into college and playing right away. John also states that  education is also a very high priority.  It just turned in to an experience of a life time for John. As a team they did not make it to the bowl game this season but he did meet valuable friends and supporters along his journey. Fortunately there is always more room for improvement for the upcoming season and John states that the passion that he brings to the game show on every snap. Thermidor can always remember when he was on the field; he would be playing every game as it was his last.

Thermidors workouts consist of plenty of repetitions of weights and running up to 5 mile a day. He focuses his training on developing speed and agility. For example he uses various ladder drills and the five dots drills to have quicker foot movement. When he isn’t working on his footwork, John is in the gym doing repetitions of heavy weights that many freshman seem to struggle with. The dedication and hard work that he put in at Jones High School is paying off.    As an athlete, he notices greater improvements on the field from his first year of college ball. Thermidor gained the ability to be able to play both end sides of defensive end positions. His speed of the edge has gotten much faster than it was in high school and has also worked on developing his academic resume. He is also able to play the cut block better due to the techniques he has learned while playing in college.

Academics are as important for the young athlete as of being on the field. When talking about steps to take academically to succeed in the future, John keeps himself around positive people who have the same goal as he does. In achieving his goals, study groups would be vital and he would also sit down with his professors to dive deeper into the subjects outside of lectures.

As we take look into John Thermidors football career, we asked him what his most memorable football experiences were. John Thermidor from Jones High School in Orlando, Florida, looks back on to his senior year. When he was practicing, he would be practicing real hard at that time as if it was his last and his former team who had a brotherly connection . John looks to a point in which he dislocated his pinkie that got caught between his helmets to the point it was touching the back of his hand. He had to pop it back in place and all he could remember was the way everyone had taken this weird pose as they looked at him as if he was mentally sick. John put his helmet back on and went in the same play as nothing had ever happened.

When Next Level Combines asked Thermidor for other interesting or important information he would like other people to know he says “I am going to be transferring to a four years university this year and also I am a strong believer that God does miracles if you believe in him". I'm also working on becoming a stronger individual in the business industry. I have learn a lot over the course of this year and I think I have grown as individual and as a leader. I really thank the people who have supported me along my journey. It has been tough and I've had my downs. But I think it is the struggle that makes you stronger and having the supporters to give you encouragement in those tough times. It really makes a difference. I love my family and my friends and I will continue to work towards my dreams and encourage others to do so as well, although the struggle may be tough.

Here is a peek on .John Thermidor Highlight tape. Click on the highlighted link for his tape. He does it right by showing us he does play every game as his last. 
 
As we continue to follow his career, only time will tell on this future upcoming athlete. Keep an eye out for John Thermidor!
 

______________________________________SPECIAL SHOUT OUTS

I want to thank the man above first for giving me life and the ability to play the sport I love. I want to thank my mom for being my motivation. My family and friends for being my supporters and last but not least to Next Level Combines for being there with me since my high school days.