ODUSports.com will do several stories throughout spring practice on the Monarchs. Today's feature is on sophomore wide receiver, Nick England. England was high school teammates with Taylor Heinicke and Andrew Everett. He played at FIU as a true freshman in 2012 before transferring to ODU in the fall.
What personal goals did you set for yourself this spring season: I just wanted to come out here and prove to the coaches that I should be a starting receiver or at least be in the rotations.
Have you accomplished that goal? Yes, I have been in the rotations since the spring started, as of right now, I am still the backup, but I am looking forward to the season and hopefully continuing to move up in the depth charts.
You were high school teammates of Taylor Heinicke and Andrew Everett, what was that like? It has always been exciting. I have known Taylor since I was really young. We have played on the same basketball teams and football teams for plenty of years, and it’s always exciting to play with him. He is a good player and a great quarterback.
Talk about the change from Florida International in comparison to Old Dominion? It’s a big change environment wise, just because I was in Miami, in Norfolk you don’t get to see a lot of palm trees. Football wise, it’s just a different coaching staff so I had to make adjustments to get used to it.
You sat out last year, what is the most important thing you learned? Patience is key, do not overwhelm yourself just because you’re not playing, and just make the most of it. Even though I fought through a lot of adversity while I was at FIU, I just tried to make improvements where I could with the time I had.
With such a deep selection of WRs, what is the competition like? It’s definitely competitive, but since its so many wide receivers everyone gets the opportunity to rotate. It’s definitely competitive during the one on ones or in practice. You always try your best to be better than the player standing next to you.
What is the one thing the offense needs to continue to work on as a whole? Consistency, we have not been as consistent as we can be, so that would be the one thing.
When did you start playing football? I started playing when I was six, I stopped for three years, and I started playing again when I was nine.
Who is your biggest inspiration and why? My dad, he is the one that introduced me to football, he passed when I was six years old and it was the reason why I stopped playing football. But I decided to play again because of him, because he was my coach, and that’s what he would want for me to do so I decided to start playing again.
One thing most people do not know about you: I’m adopted.