Army offers 2021 K Van Zelst

Wilmette (Ill.) Loyola Academy junior kicker recruit Nate Van Zelst (6-foot-0, 190 pounds) had a very strong 2019 season for the Ramblers and head coach John Holecek. Van Zelst has also drawn lots of college recruiting attention including adding his first FBS level offer this past week from Army. Van Zelst recaps his latest football recruiting news and more here.

"It's an honor to be offered a scholarship from West Point," Van Zelst said. "I had been staying in touch with Army's special teams coach (Sean Saturino) for a while so the offers wasn't a huge surprise. But again it's just a great honor and I'm definitely going to consider West Point when I look at all of my college options."

Van Zelst has remained in contact with several college coaches this past winter and early spring.

"I've been drawing interest from a lot of college coaches at all different levels. Besides Army I've been in touch with the coaches from Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern, Minnesota plus NIU, Stanford, Mississippi State and also Alabama. I've also been in touch with some Ivy League schools such as Yale, Harvard and Columbia. I've been able to make visits to NIU, Iowa and also Northwestern. I had a visit planned to Miami of Ohio but that was cancelled and I was hoping to visit a few other schools over my spring break but those are also cancelled."

Van Zelst has also been making the most out of life under the current Coronavirus pandemic.

"We've been doing a lot of E Learning classes online and it took a little while to get used to it but it's getting better. I miss being in class and having a chance to ask the teachers face to face when you have questions. From a workout standpoint I have a big open field pretty close to my house so I go and get my kicking work in. I'm also working out and training at home so I've been able to stay on top of my workouts."

So what part of his overall game has Van Zelst been working on to improve this spring?

"I've been focused on getting more height on my kickoffs and just improving my overall leg strength and technique."

As far as his recruiting process is concerned, Van Zelst is in a holding pattern like everyone else across the country.

"Everything for now is on hold when it comes to my recruiting. Several schools want me to kick for them this summer so I'm just waiting to see what happens with college camps."

Nate Van Zelst has scholarship offers from Army and Yale