Camas High School Senior Richard Braskett enjoys hunting and fishing, but most of all he enjoys playing football. Braskett has been playing football since seventh grade. The current position he plays is linebacker. Unfortunately, the pandemic has considerably affected the football season for this year.
“The pandemic impacted it (Football) greatly, shut down the gyms so if you don’t have workout equipment at home you can’t work out. Our practices in November got cut short, our practices right now are being considered so the Coronavirus has greatly impacted the Football season,” he said.
He continues to prepare for a possible chance of getting back on the turf again with his teammates, however, his preparation is a little different due to COVID-19.
Braskett said, “Before covid, the team would have zero period lifts, they were pretty fun and always a good exercise, and then I would have first-period weight training. On the weekends I would go for runs to keep cardio up. But now all I have is a pull-up bar, jogs, and the occasional PT with the marines.”
Other than a possible football season, Braskett is looking forward to finishing off the year strong and graduating. Braskett’s plan for after graduation is to go into the United States Marine Corps. The Marine Corps is an armed force that is specially trained for military duties on the sea and on land. Braskett chose this path because he always wanted to be in the military since he was very young.
“My dad was in the army since I was little I always wanted to join the military and I knew I didn’t want to join the Air Force or Navy so that left me with the army or marines and it came down to marines,” he said.
For his recruitment, Braskett was required to go to a meeting at a Marine Corps office where he took a pre-evaluation test, which he passed.
Braskett also scheduled his MEPS date for the following weekend while he was at the office. MEPS is short for Military Entrance Processing Stations, MEPS applicant’s physical and mental qualifications are assessed. He passed his physical, mental, and health evaluations at MEPS. The next weekend Braskett went back to MEPS where he proudly swore into the delayed entry program. Braskett now has a ship date to MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot) in about five months.
