FLOYDS KNOBS, Ind. — In eighth grade, it was a simple deal for Floyd Central offensive lineman Zen Michalski.
"I didn't think I was going to survive eighth grade year, honestly," Michalski said. "It was a trade off to where I got a new phone, I play football that year."
Michalski's parents throwing him into football turned out to be a good call. The Highlander senior is a three-star recruit committed to play at what he calls his dream school in Louisville, where he grew up before moving to Indiana.
But if someone would've told Michalski back in eighth grade that he'd grow into a Power Five-bound player?
"I would've told you you were crazy," Michalski said. "Honestly, I would've told you you were crazy last year."
"Zen's a special cat," Floyd Central head football coach James Bragg said. "The fact that he didn't play until eighth grade, it's really amazing where he's at right now. But that shows how much hard work he puts in."
You can see it in the 17-year-old's diet and workout routine, which have grown alongside his growth spurt. Entering high school, Michalski said he was about 6 feet tall and around 200 pounds. Going into his sophomore year, Michalski had already grown to 6 feet 4 inches and was 185 pounds.
After that second campaign, Michalski's height rose to 6 feet 6 inches. At the end of his junior football season, the lineman weighed 217 pounds. Now, he clocks in at 280 pounds, putting on 63 pounds as he enters his senior year.
"COVID was kind of like a blessing in disguise for me," Michalski said. "I go to my grandma's on the weekend, so I kind of just went there for like two months and you know grandmas: They feed you home-cooked meals every night. I just worked out nonstop with my dad.
"I felt like I was actually putting on good muscle weight and a little bit of fat, obviously. A lot of people don't understand that you have to eat the right food to gain the weight. It's not the working out that's hard. It's the staying determined to not eat junk food and stuff like that."
Those disciplinary habits are something Bragg always noticed in Michalski, along with "phenomenal" footwork. He started as a defensive end for the Highlanders before making the transition to offensive line, and Bragg said he will play both ways this year.
"There's a saying that you can't teach an old dog new tricks," Bragg said. "Well, Zen was a new dog to us. So, it was easy to mold him for the Floyd Central way that we wanted."
"I didn't have too much trouble getting into offensive line just because I haven't played football for as long and I didn't like defense as much," Michalski said. "You have to have instinct on defense and react to stuff. But on the offensive line, I just get told what to do."
He's followed instructions well enough to earn 25 scholarship offers. As more and more colleges started taking notice, the lineman had to adjust to the attention. One offer showed Bragg how his star would handle the spotlight.
"He calls me and says, 'Hey, Coach Bragg, so-and-so wants us,'" Bragg recalled. "And I said, I started laughing on the phone like, 'Wants us?' I said, 'They want you.' And he goes, 'No, this is a team thing. Everybody's helping me get here.'"
And eventually, he got to where he always wanted to be in Louisville, committing to the Cardinals back in April.
"I've watched them my whole life," Michalski said. "I went to the Notre Dame game last year and it was like an atmosphere I could never even imagine. I don't even know what it'd be like to play in this stadium, this is all I want to do."
Entering his senior season with a higher profile as a UofL commit will bring even more pressure. While Michalski recognizes that and some nerves he encountered last year, he said he should be fine with a simple diet.
"I just want to say healthy and get a lot of pancakes, honestly," Michalski said with a laugh. "And then just do as best I can. I don't want to let anyone down."
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