St. Louis stumping for Dyllan Conway
When Dyllan Conway walked out of Westminster Christian Academy football workouts on Monday afternoon, he glanced at his cell phone. It told him he had 82 notifications on Twitter. Conway did a double take.
“I knew something was going on,” the senior-to-be wide receiver said.
What was going on was a small-scale social media movement. And it was on Conway’s behalf.
Tyler Coleman, a friend of Conway's who goes to Webster Groves High School, tweeted out a simple message:
The high school football community in St. Louis listened. Suddenly, the hashtag was popping up all over the place. St. Louis has perhaps its best crop of talent ever coming in the next couple of years. Players like Kamryn Babb, Ronnie Perkins, Dallas Craddieth, Larry Boyd, Marquis Hayes and Trevor Trout saw the message and began to tweet using Coleman's hashtag. Suddenly, it was a verified social media movement.
"I know a lot of them, but it’s a ton of people who I really do not know and they’re just kind of going with it. They know of me in St. Louis and they’ve seen me play before and then there's other people who don’t even know me and just watched my highlight tape," Conway said. "It's a lot of support. It shows that everybody supports me and what I’m doing and makes me realize that all the hard work I’m putting in is not going unnoticed by the people I’m around every day. They really care for me."
"Dylan’s a very charismatic kid. It’s pretty hard not to know Dylan if he’s around. He’s a good kid," Chris Pederson, Westminster's first year head coach, said. "I think he’s got a natural charisma about him, got a great personality. I think a lot of people have probably rubbed shoulders with him at this camp or this combine."
Maybe social media can make a difference. After Conway and his coach did interviews for this story, the first offer came in on Wednesday morning, and was quickly followed by a second.
Conway is not exactly an unknown. He was invited to junior days at Missouri and Iowa a few months back. He has visited South Dakota and North Dakota State. He has attended five camps this summer, including a megacamp at Lindenwood University a couple of weeks ago with coaches from Iowa State, Nebraska and others. But so far, that exposure has not translated to an offer for the 5-foot-8 wideout.
"The past few weeks I've been talking to a lot of guys," Pederson said. "There’s not a college coach that I talk to that doesn’t know who Dyllan is and what he’s capable of doing. It seems clear to me that he’s def on people’s radar."
"They really said they don’t care about my height," Conway said about the feedback he has received. "I’ve never really heard them complain about it. They have similar athletes currently on their team. Most of them are like, 'we're just going to wait.' Definitely size is a factor."
Conway has plenty of time to pick up some offers. While social media has taken up his cause, Conway still has another full season of high school football to turn coaches' heads.
"He’s a pretty optimistic kid. He’s always got a smile. Going back to the twitter Thing, I think people are a little bit more surprised than he maybe is at this point," Pederson said. "I don’t really see him getting down on himself at all or getting frustrated with the process."
"I know I can play at the next level. That's not a question," Conway said. "That one school, honestly. I’ve heard the same thing, the domino effect. Once one offers, everybody else is going to offer."
Conway had 1,060 yards (combined rushing and receiving) as a junior on 71 touches. He scored 17 touchdowns as Westminster Christian advanced to the Missouri 4A semifinals before losing to Kearney.
"He’s definitely a playmaker. He’s one of our guys," Pederson said. "Lot of experience, lot of wins, he knows how to be successful. He’s got a lot to show for the program and the younger guys in our program."
"I’ve been practicing a lot on my route running. It’s really smooth, a lot of people have told me that," Conway said. "I know how to create space. I can return kicks, very dangerous. On offense they like to do a lot of short routes with me. I’m very good in space. I know how to open things up for the whole team. I don’t mind being the decoy as they call it. That helps the team out and I’m good at helping get things going."
Now, he just waits for his recruiting to get going.
"That might be a process that gots for a little while," Pederson said. "He might not get anything till November, I don’t know, but I do know he’s got a lot of attention."
So the question is simple. Who will be the next to #OfferDyllanConway?
"You get frustrated at times. You see people that you know for a fact that you’re better than, your stats are better, but at the same time, I take it as God testing my faith. Just be patient with it, everything will fall into place," Conway said. "I know I can play FBS, but I just want to play college football."