Cape’s Reed signs with Delaware Blue Hens

Former Cape Henlopen offensive end Brent Reed stands 6-feet-6 and weighs 245 pounds. He is hard to miss when he walks into a room. This is mostly due to the fact that he blocks out any additional sunlight with his imposing size and heavily muscled frame. Although his height is inherited, his strength was earned with hours of hard workouts spent in the gym lifting heavy weights.

I met Brent 2.5 years ago when his mom called and asked me to train him for his upcoming football and lacrosse seasons. I was immediately impressed with his dedication and commitment to becoming a better athlete. He showed a focus and maturity that were well beyond most kids his age, not to mention a frame that I knew was destined to someday play Division I football. Brent was only a sophomore at the time, but my prediction came true this week when he signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Delaware Blue Hens next year.

Brent is not your ordinary big man, he is a young senior - still only 17 years old - but he has grown into an impressive athlete. He currently runs a 4.9 40-yard dash and has squats over 365 pounds and benches 300, which is a very difficult task for a guy with such long arms and legs because he has to move the weight twice as far as the average man. He continues to get stronger with each passing week and it will undoubtedly grow in the next six months as he prepares to move on to his college career.

Brent’s workouts consist of a combination of core lifts - squats, bench presses, heavy rowing movements - and core strength combined with exercises for the smaller supporting muscle groups to protect his joints from injury.

“I believe that weight training helped me immensely this year, and I felt like the strength I gained gave me a great competitive advantage over the athletes I faced on game day,” he said.

Brent is also very excited to have the opportunity to get an education and play football for the Blue Hens.

“The University of Delaware is such a good school. It’s also very close to home and I really liked all the coaches,” said Reed.

Needless to say, he is excited to see what the future will bring. Brent will join the team as a tight end, but he may also end up playing defensive end depending on how things go when he begins practice.

In addition to being a great athlete, Brent is also an excellent student with a 3.7 grade point average. He plans to pursue real estate development or investment banking as possible career pathways. Next year he will redshirt and practice with the team, but will not play in games. This will give him an extra year of eligibility to work on getting bigger, faster and stronger. Look for this young man to do great things on the field and in the classroom. He has a very promising career ahead of him. Congratulations to Brent Reed and welcome to the University of Delaware Blue Hens!

In an ironic twist, Brent was recruited by Dave Brock, the head coach of the Delaware Blue Hens football team who was also my coach over 25 years ago when I played nose guard for Salisbury State University. It was very interesting to see the process take place and for Brent to play for a coach I worked with so many years ago.


Chris Antonio is a personal trainer and former world-class weightlifter. He has been lifting for more than 20 years and has trained a wide variety of clients ranging from All-American athletes to the average person trying to get into shape. To send a question to the Ask the Trainer column, email Chris at Askthetrainer@antoniostraining.com or check out AntoniosTraining.com for training tips, news and inspirational stories.