Wauconda's Prate grows to love national championship hunt

Remember when you were a kid and you hated certain foods?

Spinach used to be one of those foods for me. Now, I could eat spinach every day. Love it.

Tastes and preferences change as we age. We just need to keep ourselves open to that possibility.

For Bradon Prate, football is his spinach. He used to hate the sport.

And boy, is he ever glad he opened himself up to giving it another try.

Eight years removed from a bad experience in high school freshman football that led to him to quit the sport for an entire year, Prate is now about 24 hours out from playing in the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision national championship game for Illinois State.

"It's so exciting," Prate said. "I thought we'd be pretty good this season, but to be where we are at this point is a little surprising. I really can't believe it. It's a great feeling."

Prate, who returned to the game as a junior and spent his last two years of high school football under much happier conditions at Wauconda, starts on the defensive line for Illinois State. The Cinderella Redbirds (13-1) will take on three-time defending national champion North Dakota State (14-1) in Saturday's FCS title game (noon, ESPN2) at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.

It is Illinois State's first berth in the national title game. The Redbirds knocked off top-seeded and No. 1 New Hampshire to punch their ticket.

"I hated football freshman year in high school," the 6-foot-4, 285-pound Prate said. "My family lived in Arizona at the time, and I just didn't have a good experience at my school there. I didn't want to play anymore and I didn't play at all sophomore year. I was hesitant to try it again when we moved to Wauconda, just because of my previous experiences.

"Now, I'm a senior in college, and preparing to play in the national championship game. It's crazy. I never would have thought I'd be at this point in my life with football. It's funny how things work out sometimes."

The same could be said for how Prate landed a college scholarship in the first place.

As a junior at Wauconda, Prate got back in the saddle. Cautiously.

"My family convinced me to give football another try. I was just playing to play, trying to see if I could have fun with it," Prate said. "I never thought I could be good enough to be looked at by colleges."

The summer after his junior year, Prate went to some summer camps and a few one-day camps at colleges such as Illinois State and University of Illinois. Right away, he turned heads.

He was 6-foot-3, 230 pounds at the time and had quickness that many guys his size didn't have.

The first impression he made was so strong, particularly with Illinois State, that it didn't even seem to matter that he missed more than half of his senior season the next fall with a knee injury. The recruiting process forged forward.

"I remember the coaches at Illinois State told me that they liked the potential I had," Prate said. "They said that since I hadn't played much football, I'd be easy to mold, easy to teach. They also said that they liked my size and thought I had the chance to be pretty good as I got bigger and stronger."

Prate has put on about 60 pounds since his senior year at Wauconda, where he played defensive end.

He is now on the interior defensive line, playing tackle and making his presence felt.

Prate started 10 straight games last year for Illinois State before tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in a game against, ironically enough, North Dakota State. This season, after missing much of spring practice while still recovering from his off-season knee surgery, Prate has started 13 of 14 games. He's got 54 tackles, including 10 for loss. He also ranks fourth on the team in sacks with 6½.

"Last year against North Dakota State, I got hurt on the second or third play of the game, so I really didn't have the chance to fully play against them," Prate said. "For us to be able to play them in the national championship is big anyway, but for me, it's huge. I want to play those guys so bad.

"I'm back to playing pretty good. But I know I can do so much better. You lose a lot of muscle and stability when you go through an injury like that. I'm still not quite at 100 percent in my mind. I'm always really hard on myself, and as good as I'm doing, I still feel like I can do better."

Prate will be working on getting better long after Saturday's national championship game. He'll be done for Illinois State, but the kid who once hated football now has dreams of playing in the NFL. He's got to get ready to put his best foot forward at the upcoming NFL draft combines.

"I've already graduated, but I'm going to stay around school and work with the trainers and strength coach to get ready for the combines," Prate said. "People are telling me that I have the chance to go to an NFL team."

Those people are former teammates of Prate's, guys he played with and trained alongside for the last five years at Illinois State. They've got inside information on the NFL.

Colton Underwood is now a rookie outside linebacker with the San Diego Chargers. Shelby Harris is a rookie defensive end with the Oakland Raiders and Nate Palmer is a second-year linebacker with the Green Bay Packers.

Prate was once a back-up for Harris.

"I've been surrounded by guys at my position who have been really good and have gotten to the next level," Prate said. "I've played with them, I've lived with them and now they're in the NFL.

"I'm just going to do whatever I can to train and improve and hope that I get that call, too. I'm thinking it helps a lot with the NFL stuff that we're playing in the national championship game. There will be a lot of people watching."

Prate, who majored in criminal justice and sociology and might go into law enforcement after his football career is over, recognizes the irony of trying to prolong a career he once never wanted to get started.

"It's like the guys who say they hated school who become teachers," Prate laughed. "I never would have expected this for me. I'm just very fortunate and thankful I tried football again. I don't know what I would do if I didn't play football.

"Once I really learned about football and learned how to play the right way, it was good. Now, I love it."

Wonder how Prate feels about spinach.

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

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