This Friday two 8-0 football teams will face off. For one Greater Johnstown senior football player, the season is about more than just the Friday night lights.
“Football is a very physical sport,” senior Elijah Brehm says. “It’s a brotherhood. You have to bond together as a team and work well.”
Brehm is hoping those football experiences help to push him into his next journey.
“It’s a crazy world today and I’ve always grown up wanting to make an impact on the world, help lives the best I could.”
The Greater Johnstown senior is working to become a Navy Seal. Physically, the job is demanding. Brehm started mid-summer with weight training. Right now he practices two hours per day for football and then swims at the YMCA.
“He knows that hard work pays off,” Benjamin Gibson, one of Brehm’s coaches, says.
Brehm tells us that becoming a Navy Seal is about more than being in great physical shape, “You have to be mentally tough, mentally strong, and you just have to push through.”
Earlier this week Brehm went to the Military Entrance Processing Station in Pittsburgh, “The test I took was a verification test for my score and from there we had to go through medical and processing. It was a full physical and everything like that.”
He says there are multiple steps in the tryout process, “My ship day is August 8, so I’ll go to the Navy’s basic training.” He then goes to a different type of schooling for 16 weeks in California, “After that I basically would talk to someone higher up and schedule a date for tryouts.”
Brehm says he wouldn’t be where he is already without the support of his current team.
“They’ve helped tremendously. They support me 100 percent.”
“The biggest thing I take from Elijah is that anything’s possible. If you dream it, there’s a chance you can achieve it,” Gibson says.