Don’t count Elijah St. Hilaire out just yet!
When Elijah St. Hilaire committed to Army back in 2012, there was great expectation of what the former Rivals 3-star local product out of Fort Lee (NJ) by the way of Palisades Park High School would bring to the program.
Of course, like several players coming in with the 2012 recruiting class, the 5-foot-9, 195 pounder was committed to the Rich Ellerson regime, but would soon find himself playing under a new head coach [Jeff Monken] and slightly different triple option offense.
In 2015, St. Hilaire played in 7 games with just one rushing attempt for five yards.
Clearly, we aren’t looking for or making excuses on why his football career has yet to match up to the potential he exhibited as a high schooler. What we are saying is this .... ‘don’t count out the senior slotback just yet’.
“My first two years there was definitely some good talent with all the older backs and I got to learn from them, Ray [Maples], Terry [Baggett],” shared St. Hilaire in his conversation with GoBlackKnights.com, as he took time to summarized his first three seasons as a Black Knight. “Obviously I didn’t play as much and I didn’t travel my freshman year. My sophomore year I got to start traveling a little bit and we got on special teams. That was a learning experience getting out there, being able to warm-up and experience playing in a big stadium with the older backs.”
“Last year (2015) ... towards the beginning of the year, I wasn’t playing as much as I wanted to. But, I waited and kept playing my butt off and towards the end of the year I started getting into some games and started making some plays and I got my first carry {laughs}. So, this year I’m trying to execute and perfect my craft, as well as trying to be one of the leaders on the team.”
“It’s definitely been a good couple of years so far, and I just want to end this last year off really well,” he added.
The conversation with St. Hilaire turned away from his previous years in the Black & Gold, and the focused moved to how he has seen himself this spring and what his expectations for the upcoming 2016 football season.
“This spring compared to the other ones, I’m seeing myself maturing and growing, but not only a good football player ... but I’m trying to be more of a leader in my position group,” St. Hilaire pointed out. “You know we have Joe Walker who has played a lot of downs, so we are both trying to lead the group and create a championship spirit around here.”
“We are trying to do big things and we believe that the slot group is one that is going to be a huge contributing factor of having that juice, as we like to say. Obviously, in 2016 I want to play a lot more than I have in the previous years. So, hopefully start some games this season and get to a bowl game and of course, beat Navy.”
Army offensive coordinator Brent Davis concurred that the senior slotback has had a productive spring, while taking advantage of John Trainor, Christian Drake and Tyler Campbell all being out this spring due to injuries.
“He’s [St. Hilaire] working hard and he’s doing fine,” stated Davis, who also pointed out his slotback’s play during Saturday’s scrimmage. “Eli knows what to do and has really improved each year and will be a contributor for sure. He also did a nice job during the scrimmage, where he made a big catch during two-minute to set up a score.”
“Personally, I think I did well,” said St. Hilaire of his performance on Saturday. “The offensive line was getting off and they were setting up some good blocks. I’ve learned a lot from the practices leading up to Saturday’s scrimmage. For example, last practice one of the problems I had was not attacking the ball. But in this practice in the one minute drill I had similar situation and I was able to learn from that.”
“THE CHARACTER OF COMMITMENT”
So what is it about Elijah St. Hilaire that has allowed this young man to hang in there, despite receiving limited game reps over the past 3-years?
“Well, just the way my character is, I never give up on anything,” he explained.
“Another factor is the brotherhood from the guys I came in with down at the prep school. I could have left and tried to go to another school, but we built a bond from the beginning. We’ve all been learning and trying to get better together. So, it has been to watch a lot of those guys who didn’t travel like during their freshman year and now stepping onto the field and becoming key players for us. You have Xavier Moss, Steven Johnson and some other pretty good players that stuck it out and kept growing with each other.”
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