With most positions on a typical prep football field, your opponent may change from play to play. Not true for the high school cornerback. You have sole responsibility for one player generally or one area of the field and it\’s lonely out there. The free or strong safety may provide some backup but your battle is one on one with the receiver. There\’s no hiding behind the team when that balls in the air so it takes a certain amount of self-confidence to man up this position correctly. Let\’s take a look at the high school cornerback and what attributes make for a great one.

The cornerback is the defensive player that generally lines up opposed to a receiver. Depending on the coverage called by the defense, his responsibility may change. For example, in a standard cover 2, he\’s closer to the line (usually about 2-5 yards) and it\’s really one on one coverage. His goal is to bump the receiver at the line of scrimmage and mirror the player during the course of the play. Cover 3 however has him back about 10 yards and although he may start with a receiver, he generally has responsibility for a piece of defensive real estate where receivers may come into his zone and warrant his coverage. The goal obviously is to render passes incomplete and ideally intercept them. On a running play, once he determines that the play is on the ground, he provides a secondary or tertiary defensive stop beyond the line and linebackers. This is especially true on a sweep when the offense and running backs swing out to corners along the line of scrimmage looking for a gap to cut back on. This can be challenge for a corner back one on one against a running back who is generally stronger and bigger which brings up a good point…what attributes make for a solid cornerback at the prep football level?

To some extent, it\’s a mirror reflection of what makes a good receiver since the two are locked in a football arms race of sorts. A cornerback needs to have a certain level of outright speedup also quickness to change directions on a dime or accelerate very quickly to close gaps with a receiver\’s route. Good hands never hurt but a cornerback also has to be able to make the tackle in the open field when it\’s just he and the receiver. Tackling is one of those abilities where some people are just naturally good at it. A solid cornerback also gets good at reading the flow of the offense and especially the quarterback. Granted, his focus needs to be on the receiver at hand but it helps to determine if it\’s a passing play early and where the quarterback\’s attention is focused. On a running play, faced against an offensive lineman or fullback, it\’s also knowing when to just take out the legs and get the tackle versus getting ran over. In the end, a high school cornerback needs steady nerves and the ability to accelerate and change directions very quickly to offset the receiver\’s foreknowledge of the route he\’s going to run.

Author Bio: Dennis Jarvis writes about the world of Prep Sports including high school sports such as high school football, basketball, and baseball.

Category: Sports
Keywords: high school cornerback, high school football, prep football, high school sports, prep sports