Alex Hart, a 6-2 junior fullback/linebacker from Prior Lake, is one of the top players in Minnesota’s class of 2015. He is the younger brother of current Gopher redshirt freshman Nick.
Alex Hart, a 6-2 junior fullback/linebacker from Prior Lake, is one of the top players in Minnesota’s class of 2015. He is the younger brother of current Gopher redshirt freshman Nick. Hart attended the Gophers Spring Game on Saturday and also picked up an offer from North Dakota State.
Hart comes from an athletic family. His great uncle, Chuck Swanum, played football at Minnesota and his mother and father were former Golden Gopher athletes. Gopher Hole recently caught up with Hart to learn the latest on his recruitment.
Gopher Hole: You won the 220-pound state wrestling title recently. What was that experience like?
Alex Hart: That was pretty cool. My freshman year, I went out and just tried to compete and have a little fun. I almost placed my freshman year and then last year it felt cool getting third place (at 195 pounds). This year, I faced my rival (Paul Cheney of Apple Valley, the defending 220 champion) in the finals and finally beating him was a cool feeling. It was a great feeling to win it.
Gopher Hole: You two had been ranked 1 and 2 most of the season and were 2-2 against each other going into the finals. How nice was it to get that big win in the state finals match?
Alex Hart: It was a great feeling, To win the last one, the best one, it couldn’t be any better, so it was awesome.
Gopher Hole: You are getting back into football mode. Are you going to be one of the captains this year?
Alex Hart: One of my goals this year is to be a captain. I would love to be a captain for my team this year.
Gopher Hole: When do they name those?
Alex Hart: We do it in the beginning of June.
Gopher Hole: You are losing some good seniors. What would it mean to be more of a leader? Is that something you are looking forward to?
Alex Hart: Yes. It would be a great experience and hopefully lead this team to a great year and a great last season at high school.
Gopher Hole: You had a good season last year and you lost some good players like Blake Weber (a preferred walk-on at Minnesota). What are the expectations this upcoming season for Prior Lake?
Alex Hart: I would say making it to state is a very minimal expectation for us. We have a lot of good kids coming in, but we have some spots that we need to fill. I think that overall, we should be a good team.
Gopher Hole: You lost to Osseo in the Class 6A playoffs. Is that a motivating factor to get even farther this upcoming season?
Alex Hart: That was a tough loss for us and it is definitely a motivating factor for our team, all the juniors who played last year and really want to get back at it and make the state. That is one of our goals.
Gopher Hole: What are you up to weight-wise now that wrestling is over? Are you starting to try to put on some weight for your senior year or is that hard to do with wrestling since you want to stay within your weight class?
Alex Hart: I wrestle this year, throughout the year, I was mostly 215-ish, but now I am closer to 220 and hopefully before football, I can be between 225 and 230 and stay around there. Next year, I’ll probably wrestle a little heavyweight, maybe 220. It is not too hard to lose that weight.
Gopher Hole: What are the main things that you want to work on, not only for a big senior year, but to also get ready to play football at the collegiate level?
Alex Hart: I would say mostly my speed and my strength, obviously, would be two big factors and just going out and being as physical as I can. Playing as fast as I can and doing whatever I can to help our team win.
Gopher Hole: How much do you think that your wrestling skills carry over football, especially being a linebacker
Alex Hart: That definitely help out. Being a good tackler that helps out a lot in wrestling and visa versa. Just the way I use my hands a lot in wrestling and the way that you use your hands as a linebacker and be able to move well.
Gopher Hole: You had a good year running the ball. I was at a couple of your games and you had several multiple touchdown games. With Blake being gone, are you expecting to get a few more carries, not only in goal line situations, but the rest of the field as well.
Alex Hart: Yes, I’ll probably get close to the same amount as last year. Hopefully, we can find a few good running backs. I think that we have a few coming in that might not be quite as good as Blake, but who are going to step in and fill a spot well.
Gopher Hole: When we had talked last year, you had talked about wanting to play with your brother at Minnesota and now Blake is there. Does that make it even more of a special place if that is where you decide to go with them being there and you have a lot of ties to Minnesota with your great uncle was there and your mom and dad as well?
Alex Hart: yes. That would be very cool to end up there and play with Nick and Blake like it was two years ago and have both of them on the team and represent my state. I think that it would be very cool.
Gopher Hole: Right now, I think that you have offers from North Dakota State, Illinois State and South Dakota State. Is that right?
Alex Hart: Yes, sir.
Gopher Hole: What other schools are you hearing from?
Alex Hart: I am hearing from a few Ivy League schools like Harvard, Princeton and Cornell. I am talking to Wyoming. This spring, I went down to a Nebraska practice and I have been talking to them and in a few weeks, I am going down to Michigan State.
Gopher Hole: Did you get a chance to go to many Junior Day events or is it mostly the trips that you have been making?
Alex Hart: They were mostly practices because some of the Junior Days were really early on. I went to the Minnesota Junior Day, but the other ones kind of interfered with my schedule, but I have just been going to spring practices.
Gopher Hole: Have you thought about what football camps you might attend this summer?
Alex Hart: I am probably going to try to go to as few as possible, probably just Minnesota, Nebraska, Michigan State and maybe Northern Iowa and Northwestern. I don’t know completely for sure yet.
Gopher Hole: You mentioned wanting to play along with your brother. What would it mean to get an offer from the home state school?
Alex Hart: That would be super awesome. I couldn’t explain the feeling if that happened. I am just going to keep focusing on getting better and getting faster and getting stronger and helping my team have the best last year possible and then we’ll see what happens.