For several Navy football players that hail from the Dallas-Fort Worth region, the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl is a wonderful and unexpected homecoming.
For the Navy football program as a whole, playing a postseason contest in an area that is absolutely critical for recruiting is a tremendous opportunity.
Navy has three senior starters from what is known as the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Offensive linemen Javon Bouton and Brent Self grew up in Plano and Keller, respectively. Punter Riley Riethman also resides in Keller, which is about 20 minutes from downtown Fort Worth.
Those three are among 30 players from Texas on the Navy roster with a significant number of them coming from northern Texas.
“It’s just a surreal moment that I’m able to finish my career in the same area that it started,” said Self, who attended Byron Nelson High.
Navy will meet Oklahoma in the Armed Forces Bowl on Friday. Riethman played football at Nolan Catholic, a private school located 10 minutes from the stadium.
“It’s awesome. As a plebe, I could never have dreamed of getting to play in such a prestigious bowl game so close to my hometown,” said Riethman, who expects to have 20 to 30 family and friends in attendance Friday. “What an incredible way to close out my career.”
Second-year coach Brian Newberry was thrilled to learn Navy would be playing Oklahoma. This game provides the program with free exposure in a large metropolitan area that ranks among the most important in terms of recruiting.
“To be playing a storied program like Oklahoma in Texas, it doesn’t get any better than that,” Newberry acknowledged. “There is no better place to go and no better team to do it against.”
Wide receivers coach Mick Yokitis is responsible for recruiting Dallas-Fort Worth for the Midshipmen and has done a remarkable job of attracting top tier talent from the area. Navy is unable to fully take advantage of playing in Dallas-Fort Worth because this is a dead period for recruiting. That prevents Yokitis from inviting recruits to attend the Midshipmen’s practices being held at nearby Kennedale High or the Armed Forces Bowl itself.
Yokitis is aware of numerous Navy recruits that are attending Friday’s game, but they must purchase their own tickets and cannot talk to the coaches afterward.
“Just being in this bowl game is good for the Navy football brand. It gives us a chance to show the flag in a very visible way,” Yokitis said. “We’ll be very active on all the different social media platforms pumping up that Navy football is playing in the Armed Forces Bowl.”
Recruiting greater Dallas-Fort Worth is a massive undertaking because the region is so huge and there are so many high schools. Yokitis not only has to monitor prospects in the immediate metro area, but also must get out to large suburban areas such as Carrollton, Denton, McKinney, Plano and Frisco.
Each spring, during the open recruiting period, Yokitis spends a week in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He sets a goal of visiting 10 schools per day to total 50 for the week. Before embarking, he will sit down with director of recruiting Danny Payne to strategize.
Payne and his staff use research and analytics to determine what high school prospects are interested in the Naval Academy and meet the academic requirements. Yokitis lands at Dallas-Fort Worth International with a precise plan to hit schools with the purpose of visiting specific coaches and players.
“You’ve got to do a lot of homework before you go out so you know what schools to visit or else you’re going to be spinning your wheels,” Yokitis said. “You only get so many days on the road during the spring, so you can’t even come close to getting to all the schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. You need to do a lot on the front end to make sure you’re going to the right places.”
There are some perennial powerhouse high school programs that Yokitis routinely visits simply to build a bond with the head coaches and keep Navy football in the forefront of their minds.
“A school like Southlake Carroll or Duncanville will do a college day and have 70 coaches show up at practice,” Yokitis said. “It’s a great area for high school football, but you’re competing with a lot of schools.”
Yokitis has been recruiting Dallas-Fort Worth ever since he joined the Navy staff 14 years ago. That longevity is a significant advantage because there are now so many coaches he knows and trusts. It is commonplace for high school coaches to contact Yokitis to recommend he recruit one of their own players or one from an opposing school.
“It definitely takes a while to get acclimated to that area as far as developing relationships with all the coaches to the point they trust you and will let you into their community,” he said. “Over the years, I’ve developed a lot of friendships and created a bunch of contacts. I’ve got a good name down there and Navy football is very well respected.”
He outlined the many reasons why the Lone Star State has been so good to Navy football over the years.
First and foremost, the caliber of high school football is as good or better than anywhere in the country. That’s because high school programs are based on a collegiate template in such areas as film study, daily position meetings, offseason conditioning and spring practice.
Yokitis has found the quality of coaching is next level with many former or future college coaches dotting high school staffs throughout the state.
“Football is important, school is important and America is important. It’s a very patriotic state, which is why we’re able to have so much success there,” he said. “It’s big-time football that produces college-ready players.”
Texas is so serious about football that practices are held before and after school. During his spring visits, Yokitis can stop by schools and visit with coaches and players from 6 a.m. to 8 pm.
Yokitis made his pitch to Bouton just after dawn in the office of Prestonwood Christian Academy football coach Chris Cunningham. He had sent Bouton a direct message via Twitter asking when they could meet and the first team All-State selection said he would be arriving at school at 6 a.m. for track and field practice.
“Dallas-Fort Worth is probably one of the top five hotbeds for high school football in the whole country,” Bouton said. “I think about all the great players I went against when I was in high school. When you play football in Texas, you’re battling the best of the best every week.”
A large contingent of relatives from the immediate area along with Cuningham and other coaches from Prestonwood are attending the Armed Forces Bowl. Former high school teammates and members of Bouton’s church are also coming.
“I’m so glad that so many people that care about me and helped me get where I am will be able to see my play in-person one last time. I think it’s a blessing, to be honest,” he said.
Self fully understands how this bowl game provides a platform to promote the Navy program and said the players are eager to send a strong message to the college football world by knocking off Oklahoma.
“It’s a great opportunity to showcase what Navy football is all about and prove that our program is relevant on a national stage,” he said. “We want to show all the recruits in the region that we play big-time football and can compete with anybody.”
Have a news tip? Contact Bill Wagner at bwagner@capgaznews.com, 443-534-0102 and x.com/@BWagner_CapGaz.
Armed Forces Bowl
Navy vs. Oklahoma
At Amon G. Carter Stadium, Fort Worth, Texas
Friday, noon
TV: ESPN
Radio: 1430 AM
Line: Oklahoma by 3 1/2
