There’s a local high school football story happening right now that’s capturing our attention. On this episode of Hustle and Pro, we welcome to the show one of Lone Star High School’s football team captains, Jake Bogdon.
Like any good team player, Jake talks less about his own individual success and more about how his team focuses on the upcoming game rather than the noise surrounding the undefeated team. He’s been called a Swiss Army Knife because of his skills on and off the field, and even switched positions from receiver to running back for his senior year.
Each week they aspire to get better as a team and have stepped it up this season to improve practices and leadership. It seems to be working for them. We’re watching Lone Star HS do their thing and enjoying their success as they represent Frisco ISD very well.
Show Notes
- [:35] Quick hits with Jake Bogdon
- [1:40] Jake’s multi-sport history
- [3:00] Highlights for Lone Star Football so far this season
- [4:18] Turf/Indoor vs under the lights
- [5:30] Swiss Army Knife & Boggy nicknames
- [8:36] Lone Star’s season, leadership and stepping up
- [10:00] Jake’s plans for college & adapting this season
- [16:15] Toughest part even with success
Resources within this episode:
Connect with Lifestyle Frisco:
Transcript: (machine-generated)
Kelly Walker: On today’s episode of hustle and pro, we have a representative of none other than lone star high school’s number one ranked football team. This is so exciting for me. So Jake Bogdan, how are you Jake?
Jake Bogdon: I’m good. How are you? I’m great.
Kelly Walker: Thanks for stopping in today. So besides letting everybody know that you’re killing it right now on the field, um, we’re going to talk more about that of course. But I have some quick hits to get to know you a little bit better. Are you ready? Who is your all time favorite athlete?
Jake Bogdon: I’m a big Hershel Walker fan because that was my uncle’s favorite player. Ah, yeah.
Kelly Walker: And now you play football at one star high school. So one of my questions is what’s your favorite sport to play? Is football your favorite sports to play?
Jake Bogdon: Definitely football.
Kelly Walker: What about your favorite sport to watch though?
Jake Bogdon: Still football.
Kelly Walker: Okay. Did you grow up playing other sports though?
Jake Bogdon: Yeah, I played basketball and baseball.
Kelly Walker: Okay. We’ll talk about that a little more too. Okay. What is the farthest distance you’ve ever gone to watch sports or play sports?
Jake Bogdon: I think I’ve gone to Houston for a baseball tournament before.
Kelly Walker: Okay. One more. What, do you have any superstitions like sports superstitions that you, you got to do something a certain way on game day or something like that?
Jake Bogdon: No, not really. Not really. I just, Oh, I do actually get Chick-fil-A almost every game day in the morning. So yeah, I get Chick-Filet breakfast on game day. Yeah.
Kelly Walker: Good deal. Okay, so I’m, let me rewind a little bit. Um, you played Baseball and basketball. So how long, I’m always interested in knowing if athletes are multi-sport athletes. So how long did you play those other sports?
Jake Bogdon: Well I’d played them, I think I started playing them in when I was in like third grade and then baseball, I think I stopped playing in sixth grade in basketball. My last year was in eighth grade.
Kelly Walker: Okay. So when you got to high school, did you just focus on football? You knew that was going to be your one thing? Football these four years?
Jake Bogdon: Yeah, just football and well they make us do track and of course track.
Kelly Walker: So I wondered that you didn’t say it but I thought, I thought a lot of football players do track. Kind of an off season conditioning keep healthy kind of thing.
Jake Bogdon: Right. Sport as much as it doesn’t work out so.
Jake Bogdon: Do you do like track? You do?
Jake Bogdon: Yeah, the meets are fun.
Kelly Walker: Okay, good. What do you, what’s your event.
Jake Bogdon: I ran the four one one last year.
Kelly Walker: Okay. Yeah. Are you guys good at track?
Jake Bogdon: Decent.
Kelly Walker: Not as good as you are right now in football. So you guys are having pretty much the most amazing season, right? Yes ma’am. Tell me, so tell me what your seasons has been like so far and like what’s the biggest highlights? You’ve had some big things, right? So what has been your highlight?
Jake Bogdon: No, we try to like not focus on some of the big things that we’ve done and we just try and focus on our team. So I think the highlights for us is that we just keep getting better each week. I feel like, cause last game was like a real test to show like how good we really were. And so, uh, I think I’m proud of how we’ve gotten better each week.
Kelly Walker: So last week was the colony? Yes. And it was a close game? Yes. Was it y’alls closest so far?
Jake Bogdon: I would say yes, it came down to the end. Yeah.
Kelly Walker: And you ended up being the one, did you have like a 40 yard? 55 yard, 55 yard. Was it four minutes left? Something out with a four. I feel like. Okay. At the end of the game you scored a touchdown and that was the go ahead and you guys ended up beating them. . Yes. So that’s a pretty big highlight. You didn’t say Highland park, but that was probably a pretty, pretty awesome win also. Right?
Jake Bogdon: Well, we just went in there with the mentality that it was just another game cause it was, but uh, they obviously had a really nice record at home. They’d only lost one game ever. So it was just exciting to make history, I guess.
Kelly Walker: Yeah, it’s been awhile since they lost that game. So that was awesome. So speaking of, kind of going down on, on their turf, so Friday night lights, everybody throws that that around up here of course. But um, not all of your games are outside. So kids here in Frisco are lucky enough to have facilities like the star and um, have you ever played an AT&T stadium? Yeah. So those are, you know, not too shabby facilities. So I’m kinda curious though, do you, do you prefer that awesome indoor perfect facility or do you like being outside and outside the stadium with, you know, the, the traditional Friday night lights thing?
Jake Bogdon: I like, I actually liked the stadium. The Star is like our home kind of, we feel like we play the best when we’re in the star, but we can play outside too. So doesn’t matter that much to me.
Kelly Walker: Doesn’t it seem like it just kinda feels more like traditional high school football when you’re outside
Jake Bogdon: and Memorial? Sometimes. Yeah. That’s our other home stadium.
Kelly Walker: Memorial. Yeah. Yeah. That’s so old school compared to what the, you know, the other places, I don’t know, it just feels like a bigger moment for some reason. Right. When you’re kinda outside, especially now that it’s getting colder and half feels like football should, should feel outside. You’re so in baseball they call utility players. Right. But I know, I know that’s not really a football term, but, but I don’t know who coined your, your nickname about Swiss army knife. Right? So was that coach Rayburn or how’d you get that nickname?
Jake Bogdon: I’m pretty sure it was coach Raymore. Coach Rayburn. Yeah. I think it was Coach Rayburn
Kelly Walker: So he calls you that obviously because you have a, a bunch of different skills and you’re threat a couple of different ways. So tell me, tell me about that. Like what are the different, um, you know, your best attributes.
Jake Bogdon: Oh, uh, last year I wasn’t playing, running back, I was playing receiver. So I have great coaches. So I was able to like all of the things I needed to be a good receiver last year. And then they moved me in the spring and running back was kind of natural for me. So coach helped me get better at that. And so I feel like the coaches just helped me utilize my skills.
Kelly Walker: So, you never dabbled in being a running back until,
Jake Bogdon: well, I had played running back in middle school, but I changed receiver as soon as I got to high school.
Kelly Walker: You’re not playing receiver at all this year? This season? No. Okay. Just playing, running back. But then you also, I think I saw something coach Rayburn and posted this about you because of your academic achievements. Right. So tell me about that. Like is has that been a challenge for you? This crazy hectic, big senior year keeping up with school.
Jake Bogdon: our coaches try to make time for us to go to the tutorial. So like if we have meetings though obviously, but uh, academics before athletics and they’ll let us go, like miss a meeting to go to tutorials and get whatever we need to be fixed. So no, it hasn’t been that hard.
Kelly Walker: Cause I know you’ve, you’ve had a few media interviews too, so you get pulled away to do things like this. Yeah. Um, have you always been a good test taker? Cause I’ve, I’ve seen that you have some good, good sat scores.
Jake Bogdon: Well I actually had taken the test. That was like my fifth time taking that test. Yeah.
Kelly Walker: So you worked to get to get to that point.
Jake Bogdon: Yeah, our academic advisor helps us. She gave us like Khan Academy accounts. So we used to go in her class all the time for our like advisory period to work on that.
Kelly Walker: So that was the fifth time taking it.
Jake Bogdon: Well that was my, actually my fourth time, but I’ve taken the sat of fifth. I took it again after because we had a free one at our school. And I hadn’t gotten that score back yet, so like I’ll take it again.
Kelly Walker: So you might’ve even been done better than what people have seen. So your nickname is boggy also? Where did that come from?
Jake Bogdon: Uh, I actually think, uh, coach Fish who’s over at Bonham now came up with that nickname. But uh, it stuck and I don’t, it’s almost weird when they call me Jake sometimes because I’m so used to just hearing them call me bog. Yeah.
Kelly Walker: So you’re, it’s boggy or bog?
Jake Bogdon: Only from the coaches. It’s weird if they call me, if they call me Jake.
Kelly Walker: What are all, what are your classmates and friends call you?
Jake Bogdon: Call me Jake. Yeah.
Kelly Walker: Now did you grow up in Frisco?
Jake Bogdon: Yes.
Kelly Walker: So you’ve always been here. Um, what was your middle school?
Jake Bogdon: Uh, I went to Stafford and then we got rezoned for Trent. So I went to Stafford and Trent, Stafford and Trent, but they both feed into the lone star.
Kelly Walker: So, and you’ve only been at Lonestar. Okay. I didn’t know if you got, you know, bounced around different schools or anything. What was y’all season like last year?
Jake Bogdon: Uh, last year it just felt like it was a much longer and tougher process. We couldn’t really figure it out, but this year it’s just been real easy to practice. We weren’t practicing that great last year. I didn’t feel like, and our leadership was a little bit like off last year. So I feel like this year was a big step up us.
Kelly Walker: So what, what changed with the, like how did the leadership change?
Jake Bogdon: When we lost against John Tyler A lot of us didn’t want that to happen again, so we just kind of stepped up.
Kelly Walker: And are you a team captain?
Jake Bogdon: Right.
Kelly Walker: How many, how many captains do you guys have and who are they?
Jake Bogdon: We have four. It’s Jaylan Ford, Marvin Mims, Alessio Russolillo And then myself,
Kelly Walker: do you guys meet up separately and like work kind of as your small captains group to figure out how you’re gonna keep your guys motive?
Jake Bogdon: We’ll meet with coach Rayburn almost once a week. Yeah. We talk about our team stuff and just what we feel like, cause our coaches trust us. So he’ll ask us what we feel like we need to do. Sometimes if we need to do this during practice, it’ll help us out. Then they’ll just listen and stuff like that.
Kelly Walker: So I’m guessing you like being a, a leader, a team captain on this team working out for you guys? Are all four captain seniors?
Jake Bogdon: Uh, no. Alessio is a junior.
Kelly Walker: Okay. So you’re not all gonna turn over and be gone next year? So what about next year? We’re not quite halfway through your senior year now. So what does that looking like for you as far as, do you plan to keep playing football? Are you, are you gonna be done after high school?
Jake Bogdon: Uh, I would like to keep playing. I just have to wait and see what comes my way. So I’m just going to focus on this year and the hope something comes after.
Kelly Walker: Do you have like specific goals that you’re setting up for, for, you know, talking to certain schools or do you have dream schools?
Jake Bogdon: Uh, I mean it would be my dream to play division one football, but whatever comes my way, I’ll be very happy with
Kelly Walker: all you High school kiddos. Are you guys all Cowboys fans or do you see, do you have some teammates that like crew, the other teams like Patriots?
Jake Bogdon: We have some guys who like the saints? they’re from Louisiana.
Kelly Walker: Oh, you got some guys from Louisiana. I mean, I guess that’s fair if they’re from Louisiana, that’s allowed. But who, um, who’s your favorite, who’s your favorite Cowboys player?
Jake Bogdon: Zeke.
Kelly Walker: Because he’s your position.
Jake Bogdon: I just like him.
Kelly Walker: Are you an Emmett Smith guy?
Jake Bogdon: Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Walker: I mean who doesn’t like him? And um, so who, so obviously Zeke is the leading rusher in the NFL right now. Who else? Who else do you like?
Jake Bogdon: Christian McCaffrey from the Panthers and then Dalvin cook. I think he actually might be leading the league right now.
Kelly Walker: Oh yeah. I mean I just say Zeke cause I just assume he’s, I guess it kinda depends on the week and what’s happened. What about, what about you? Like stats wise, obviously it’s, you’re a standout because what you’re doing on the field. So what are you kind of known for? Obviously your speed and your, you’re nimble and you move, you cut and move quickly.
Jake Bogdon: Yes. Good vision.
Kelly Walker: Good vision. Meaning you see the holes and nowhere to go. Okay. Is that so, but that, but see, you’ve only been doing this for this season, right? This position?
Jake Bogdon: Yeah. Well our, our coaches have a really good system that helps us be successful.
Kelly Walker: did you feel like when you finished last season that you do know you would, that you were changing?
Jake Bogdon: Uh, I had asked coach Rayburn about it. Okay. Yeah.
Kelly Walker: So something that you thought you could do? Or I didn’t know if they came to you and said, we gotta use you in a different way, right?
Jake Bogdon: Yeah, no, I, I felt like I could do it. And I felt like we needed somebody there.
Kelly Walker: So did you guys have a receiver that graduated out? I mean a running back that graduated out and you knew there was a need?
Jake Bogdon: Well we had, we have to have multiple running backs in our system cause it’s hard to keep running the ball and not get tired. Yeah. So they had four running backs last year and they were all seniors, so,
Kelly Walker: Oh yeah. Yeah. So they needed you. Uh, how many carries are you getting every game?
Jake Bogdon: Uh, it kinda depends on how the game is going. Yeah. If like if we’re beating up on a team, we don’t have to run the ball that much. So I’d probably get it like 12, 14, 15 times a game.
Kelly Walker: That’s good for you. Yeah. So if you’re only getting it, you know, five or so you’re like, come on.
Jake Bogdon: I think I’ve got, I think I’ve gotten over like 10 touches the game.
Kelly Walker: all, games? So five is too low. You’re always going to get at least 10. Did you go into every game with like a yardage goal?
Jake Bogdon: I just tried to play my best every game. So,
Kelly Walker: but I mean you gotta have some like,
Jake Bogdon: I mean I guess it’s nice to get over a hundred.
Kelly Walker: in the colony game. Do you remember what you were?
Jake Bogdon: I had 210 yards in three times or two touchdowns.
Kelly Walker: That’s all two 10 catch downs. So what does the rest of the season look like for you guys?
Jake Bogdon: Uh, we’re practicing each week for um, the team that we’re going to play cause we prepare the same every week. But uh, obviously we’re getting closer to the playoffs so we kind of have to pick it up and make sure that we’re really getting better every week now. Yeah.
Kelly Walker: Have you always worn number two.
Jake Bogdon: This is the first year wearing two. Oh yeah. I used to wear 34 cause that’s my favorite number and that was Herschel Walker’s numbers 34 with,
Kelly Walker: so why’d you switch to two?
Jake Bogdon: I wore number 10 my junior year and I was like, I felt like since I was changing to a running back, I needed a new number and two was available. So I picked two.
Kelly Walker: And you are all district receiver last year? Yes. Wow, that’s crazy to do that.
Jake Bogdon: Well and then switched positions.
Kelly Walker: I mean I get why you guys had your seniors graduated. That’s just that you’re going to have such a like a wide span, you know, have your high school career. So say you don’t end up playing in college. Where would like is there somewhere you want to go and something you know you want to do and like what’s your areas of interest as far as like what your major would be and what you want to study?
Jake Bogdon: Uh, I haven’t really decided actually on what majors or any of that stuff, but I would, it would probably be cool to go like in the Arkansas area or Colorado New Mexico type area.
Kelly Walker: Arkansas is a place you guys go like, Hey, I feel like everybody’s going up there. What is it about Arkansas? Everybody wants to go,
Jake Bogdon: it’s the campus. I think the campus is real nice, yeah.
Kelly Walker: Do you have friends that are already there?
Jake Bogdon: My cousin is actually, Yeah.
Kelly Walker: And so what you don’t know what you want to do in school. What are you into? Like I know you’re into football right now and that’s probably mostly it. But what else? What else do you see yourself liking?
Jake Bogdon: I thought about coaching. Yeah, I’d be interested in, I’d have to teach to do that. So yeah.
Kelly Walker: Yeah, I mean teaching coach. That’s awesome. Well that is definitely your main focus of life right now is everything. Just sort of feel like it’s all about football right now. I bet you that can be kind of a curse though too, right? Cause that’s like you, you’re kind of not getting away from it right now.
Jake Bogdon: Well it’s going good right now.
Kelly Walker: It’s going good. Like it couldn’t be going better. Yes. You guys are representing Frisco really well. It’s a fun ride. So hopefully you guys can stay, keep your momentum and stay on top for a little while longer. But you know what, even at some point in a moment I might stop. Right. But even if it does, um, you’ve probably learned a lot this season and had some really good experiences to take away. Yes ma’am. What would you say is the hardest thing you’ve been, even with all the success y’all are having? So this episode or this podcast is called hustle in pro. So I asked people what the hardest part is and I mean, you’re having a stellar season so it’s probably all good right now, but well, what is the hardest thing even with success?
Jake Bogdon: just making sure that we’re blocking out all the extra stuff like on social media talking about us. We need to just stay focused on our team.
Kelly Walker: Stay focused. Leave all that other let, all that other stuff. Go. You try not to even see it like,
Jake Bogdon: well, I mean it’s, you always see it, but yeah,
Kelly Walker: trying to ignore it, not let it get in your head. Just block it out. Yeah, I like that. That’s a good way to look at it. Thank you. Coach Rayburn for sending you our way and letting us chat with you for a few minutes. So good luck with the rest of your season.
Jake Bogdon: Thank you,
Kelly Walker: and thank you for listening to hustle and pro. So however you’re listening today, please subscribe so you can get notifications on next week’s episode.