Drew Sapp explains why Lakeland star commits to Deion Sanders, Colorado

( Editor's note: Lakeland senior defensive lineman Drew Sapp wrote the following first-person story to announce his commitment to Colorado. The 6-foot-3, 235 pound Sapp is the No. 59 overall player in the USA TODAY Florida Network Top 100 .)

Lakeland is not a program that plays freshman on varsity. But I wanted to play, so the summer after eighth grade I convinced coach CJ to let me workout with JV and varsity every day over the summer.

So my football career at Lakeland began with 3-a-day's. 5 a.m. with varsity, then again with JV a few hours later. Later into the summer, varsity added night lifts. I was there for everything.

I was a smaller guy compared to everyone else. So I took that underdog role my freshman year, and nothing's changed since. That's been my mindset no matter how big I am now or how big my name sounds as a recruit. I'm always going to keep working to get as good as I can until my name is called.

I earned reps on varsity as a freshman, and ended up having a pretty decent sophomore year. I played tight end and defensive end, and that's when I fell in love with the defensive side of the ball.

I love the aspect of hitting. I love the competition and the physicality that 's required from defensive ends. It's just different on the defensive side. Tight end was fun and I started there for four or five months, but I just love hitting. I love chasing the quarterback around.

That offseason is when my stock started to rise. I hit probably 20 camps. I just found any camp I could go to and do all of them. Between that and training with Coach Taylor and Coach Ray in Tampa, I was going really hard.

That's what set me up for my junior year, when I excelled. My game started to improve a lot. I think I finished with 75 tackles and 13 sacks. Then Coach Ray invited me out to Trench Academy's 5-on-5 team, and that changed a lot for me, too. We were playing the best competition from all over the country. Travelling to Georgia, California, all over going to see the top-ranked teams. And I think my pass rush has really excelled since then.