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30 | April 18, 2019 | The glencoe anchor sports<br />
glencoeanchor.com<br />
NT grad Kaskey readies himself for NFL Draft<br />
Michael Wojtychiw<br />
Sports Editor<br />
For many football players, the<br />
dream is to ultimately play in the<br />
National Football League. Some<br />
players realize that dream later<br />
in life, some have it right away<br />
when they start playing.<br />
For Dartmouth College senior<br />
offensive lineman and New<br />
Trier graduate Matt Kaskey, it<br />
wasn't something that came to<br />
him until after his college career<br />
was over.<br />
"The way I operate, I don't<br />
really set these lofty goals for<br />
myself, and think about being in<br />
the NFL every day since I was<br />
in high school. But obviously, in<br />
the back of my head, I was like,<br />
'Man, that'd be cool,'" he said.<br />
"I never thought I'd actually do<br />
it, but I dreamed about doing it.<br />
You set these incremental goals<br />
for yourself and you've really<br />
got to go step by step. You can't<br />
skip anything.<br />
"And that's kind of the way<br />
that I like to work. I like to<br />
set short term goals that I can<br />
achieve, and then once I achieve<br />
them, look on to the next thing."<br />
For players hoping to go to the<br />
draft, there isn't much rest after<br />
the season is over. For Kaskey<br />
and his Dartmouth teammates,<br />
Dartmouth offensive lineman Matt Kaskey, a New Trier graduate, goes up against a defensive player<br />
from the University of Pennsylvania in a game earlier this year. Tom McNeill/Dartmouth College<br />
their season ended on November<br />
17 with a win over Brown. After<br />
a couple weeks of rest to try to<br />
heal up his injuries and taking<br />
his time in picking an agent to<br />
help him get to the next level,<br />
it was back to working out and<br />
preparing for the draft.<br />
However, draft workouts<br />
aren't the same as ones you'll go<br />
through during the offseason or<br />
in-season. Draft workouts are<br />
more specialized, especially<br />
in speed and agility drills, two<br />
things that will be looked at during<br />
the workouts and pro days<br />
the hopeful draftees will go<br />
through.<br />
"As an offensive lineman, I<br />
don't normally have to train to<br />
be fast on a 40-yard stretch, or<br />
anything like that," Kaskey said.<br />
"Starting this process, you have<br />
to work on different things, and<br />
the workouts are really unique<br />
to what you find in other football<br />
programs, and other times during<br />
your football career."<br />
Kaskey completed his collegiate<br />
career with a bevy of<br />
awards and achievements.<br />
The offensive tackle was<br />
named a second-team All-<br />
American by both the AFCA<br />
and STATS and a third-team<br />
All-American by the Associated<br />
Press. He was also named<br />
an All-Ivy League First Team<br />
member in both his junior and<br />
senior seasons, as well as to the<br />
Division I All-New England<br />
Team this season.<br />
Most players would say that<br />
the biggest change between high<br />
school football and college football<br />
is the speed of the game.<br />
Not Kaskey, though.<br />
"I haven't really felt that way<br />
at all," he said. "I feel like the<br />
biggest difference is the intelligence<br />
you have to bring to<br />
Please see Kaskey, 26<br />
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