Draft’s Glass a finalist for All-American Bowl

STUARTS DRAFT — Rising Stuarts Draft senior Zach Glass joined a field of 400 of the nation’s best high school football players on Thursday, being nominated as a finalist for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

Glass, a 6-foot, 3½-inch, 240-pound defensive linemen, is one of 400 players that have the chance to play in the annual bowl game that features top prospects from across the country. The field will be narrowed down to 90 from October until December. The game will be played on Jan. 9 in San Antonio, Texas at the Alamodome and will be broadcasted on NBC.

Glass said that he was honored to be a finalist for the All-American Bowl and was hopeful that he would get a chance to play in another game.

“I’m blessed, just to achieve this and to have the people in this room,” he said while his family sat in the Stuarts Draft High School conference room.

As only a junior, Glass has already drawn interest from several NCAA Division I schools including Penn State, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia.

Currently, Glass is keeping all of his options open and has not ruled out any program.

“I’m still young and I’ve visited a lot of great places,” Glass said. “I’m just trying to gather the information that I can and sit down with my family and decide what is the best fit for me.”

Glass said that if he makes the final cut, he hopes to gain as much national exposure as possible.

“It’s just another game that I can play in,” he said. “I want to play this game as along as possible. This is what I love to do. It’s another experience to be coached by different coaches and gain all the experience I can.”

Stuarts Draft coach Rod Bowers said that Glass would be a good catch for any college program.

“Whoever takes an interest in him and gives him an offer, he’s going to make them a real good football player in college,” Bowers said. “It’s really difficult to find a kid with the work ethic that Zach has. Whoever gets him, is going to get a good one.”

Since his sophomore season, Glass has drawn attention both regionally and nationally from scouting Web sites like Scout.com and Rivals.com. Glass said that he tries to ignore it though and focus on what he needs to do to improve.

“I try not to think about it to much,” he said. “I try to bury it while working out. That’s how I get rid of a lot of my pressure; it really helps me a lot. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed and don’t know what to do, so I talk to coach Bowers and Coach [Nathan] Floyd and that helps out, but the gym is where I let most of it go.”