From a fifth grader joining his local football league to an All-American playing in the famous Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, senior Denver Elliott has led a decorated career through grit, determination, and perseverance.
Elliott first started playing football in fifth grade for a team located in Dulles. When he moved to Western Loudoun, he joined the Upper Loudoun Youth Football League (ULYFL). Elliott quickly climbed the ranks of youth football despite multiple injuries, joining the more competitive War Eagles team and finally a Virginia state team. He has played football all four years at Woodgrove High School, explaining, “I have a lot of energy, and lifting doesn’t really do it for me most of the time. I like being active, but being able to use every aspect of my athleticism and, at the same time, use my brain is very rewarding.”
Elliott’s four years at Woodgrove have been incredibly decorated. He has been varsity captain for two years as well as a two-time first-team all-region defensive end, racking up a plethora of sacks and forced fumbles during his time. In a speech about Elliott at the football banquet this year, Woodgrove head coach Derek Barlow commented, “His intensity, his effort, his motor never stops.”
Recently, Elliott was awarded the opportunity to participate as a defensive end in the Blue-Grey All-American game in Tampa, Florida. There are three Blue-Grey All-American games: two in Tampa and one in Dallas. Players are nominated anonymously by coaches from all over the country. Two weeks into this football season, Elliott “first heard of the All-American game because I got a DM on Twitter from the company that does it, and they told me that a college coach had nominated me.” To this day, Elliott is unsure of which coach was the one to nominate him. After the nomination, players had to fill out personal information like height, weight, and age. Players send film from their time playing, and then they get considered and put into a certain bowl to play in.
Once Elliott arrived in Tampa, he went sightseeing around the city, where he walked the boardwalk and attended a gun show before attending practice the next morning. The teams only held two three-hour-long practices to mesh as a team and install a game plan before the game, a difficult feat. However, Elliott was surprised by “how fast the team meshed together given the geographical differences of the team.” The game was held in Raymond James Stadium, the stadium of the 2021 Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and streamed on ESPN. While the stadium was not at full capacity, Elliott estimated that they had a crowd of over a thousand, heightening the experience for the players.
Despite an unfortunate 17-31 loss, Elliott had an impressive 10 tackles, a sack, and a fumble recovery. Elliott has committed to Tufts University for next year. “I didn’t think I was going to commit to play football. I was just using it to get into a college. Now, I just want to play because I love it.” Part of Elliott’s decision was due to Tufts’ intense commitment to academics. “The coaches tell you to skip practice for school. Also, it was one of the only places I could do ROTC [Reserves Officers’ Training Corps], football, and engineering,” said Elliott. Even in a new environment, though, Denver’s family is confident he will succeed at the next level. His older sister, Ali Elliott, commented, “Denver has always been invested in whatever he sets his mind to. Whether it be football, fixing up cars or any of his other hobbies, his dedication has been undeniable…He really cares about his teammates’ success and not just his own… I can’t wait to watch him at the next level.”
