Sports

Eight-Year-Old QB Has All the Right Moves

Daron Bryden, an 8-year-old quarterback for the Manchester Sentinals, has quickly become a YouTube sensation for his trick throws.

Watching Daron Bryden throw a football through a basketball hoop from half court or zip a tight spiral into the arms of a receiver in midstride from 20 yards out is an impressive sight.

But it becomes even more impressive when you realize that Daron, an Enfield native who plays quarterback for the Manchester Sentinals youth football league, is only eight years old.

Although it might be a little premature to label Daron a football phenom at such a young age, he does seem to possess a great number of technical skills, a strong arm and an uncanny accuracy that would be the envy of any number of quarterbacks twice his age.

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You can check out Daron’s skills for yourself in the video that accompanies this article, or in this earlier video that his father Craig Bryden uploaded to YouTube that shows Daron throwing a football through a basketball hoop from half court and nailing a trash can at 15 yards and a sneaker atop the trash can at 30 yards. The video quickly became a YouTube sensation, garnering more than 42,000 views as of Friday, March 11. Since the video was uploaded in mid-February, Daron has been featured on ESPNews “The Beat,” ESPN2’s “SportsNation,” and Fox CT News because of his skills.

Daron and his father Craig Bryden say he started to learn the position about two years ago, when Craig Bryden was looking for a sport his son could participated in, and Daron expressed interest in football. Craig Bryden said his son quickly “fell in love with the game” and asked to spend more and more of his free time practicing the sport. Now, he says, it's all Daron wants to do some days. 

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“Everyday when he wakes up in the morning he asks me if I can take him to the gym,” Craig said. “He loves to practice all the time.”

Because of his son’s passion for the sport, Craig Bryden sought out a private quarterback coach to work with Daron and teach him the proper mechanics, and found one in Travis Meyer, whose FiveStar Quarterback Training camp offers specialized and individual coaching to young quarterbacks.

Meyer said he typically works with high school and college-aged athletes, and was a bit reluctant to work with a player as young as Daron when Craig Bryden first approached him. But Meyer agreed to come and speak with Daron and watch him play, and said he was impressed with his technical skills and commitment to the game at such a young age.

“I usually don’t work with anyone as young as Daron,” Meyer said. “I was hesitant at first, and his dad just told me to come see and talk to him and see if I wanted to coach him.”

Meyer said what he found in Daron was a “different kind of kid” who was passionate and committed to the sport and willing and able to do all that was asked of him to improve as a quarterback. After Daron quickly picked up the basics, Meyer said he is teaching Daron many of the same things he now teaches to his most advanced quarterbacks, like Dale Fink, a senior quarterback at Sacred Heart University who Meyer is currently training for an NFL tryout.  

“He just loves the training,” Meyer said of Daron. “Usually at that age it’s the parents pushing the kids into the sport, but he begs to see me. He begs his dad to take him down to the gym so he can train. He’s a different kind of kid.”

Daron’s skills and work ethic have also won him admirers on the Manchester Sentinels, like Joseph Colon, a 10-year old wide receiver on the team who says he loves playing with Daron because he is one of the few quarterbacks at that age that knows how to throw an accurate pass.

“Most of the quarterbacks I’ve had are not really accurate,” Colon said. “He’s only eight and he’s really good.”

Daron chalks his skills up to knowing the proper footwork, training and technique, which he says he learned from his time spent working with Meyer.

“He taught me how to play quarterback,” Daron said of Meyer. “He taught me my three-step (drop)…and how to roll out and throw on the run. And he taught me the five-step drop…because those are the two important things you need to know to be a quarterback and to read the defense.”

Daron said his dream is to play quarterback for the University of Connecticut and then for his favorite NFL team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he realizes that he still has many years of training and hard work ahead of him.

But for Daron, that’s fine, because he says he loves the training.

Craig Bryden says he is just happy that his son found something he is passion about and looks forward to supporting him throughout his career.

“I just want him to be whatever he’s happy (with),” Craig Bryden says of his son. “He tells me he wants to be a football player. I tell him to go for that dream. He wants to be a quarterback for UConn, maybe be a professional after that. We’ll see what happens.” 


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