Ex-Ute John Madsen turns to training teen athletes

DRAPER — John Madsen fulfilled his dreams by completing an improbable journey to the National Football League.

Now, he's hoping that his experience of beating impossible odds will help others do the same.

Madsen, who attended Hunter High — but didn't play football there — is moving on in his post-football career. Madsen, who was a receiver at the University of Utah before playing three seasons as a tight end in the NFL, is opening a training facility in Draper. The facility is geared toward serious youth athletes in all sports.

Madsen is opening his new facility after passing up the chance to extend his NFL career with the Detroit Lions.

"I just came to the conclusion that football might be coming to an end sooner than later in my life, and I needed to be ready to do something with football out of my life," Madsen said. "This (football and training) is something that I've passionately enjoyed my whole life. I came up with the idea trying to help some of the younger athletes and wanted to do it here in my hometown in Utah."

Younger athletes can learn plenty from Madsen — not just how he made it to the NFL, but also about the training methods and techniques he gleaned while working his way from Hunter High to being a professional athlete.

'Long road'

Madsen made it to the NFL without ever playing a down of high school football. He played football in Little League through his ninth-grade year. When he suffered a sports hernia as a sophomore, he figured he'd pick up the sport again during his junior and senior years.

Those well-laid plans changed when Madsen went through a growth spurt. Madsen grew to 6-foot-3 without gaining a pound, and figured he would be best suited to playing basketball instead.

"I thought basketball was my sport," Madsen said. "I was lanky, lean and skinny. I thought, 'Football is not my game anymore.' "

After a solid high school athletic career in which Madsen lettered in basketball and baseball, he attended Snow College on an academic scholarship. He was quickly courted by the school's football, basketball and baseball coaches. He gave football a try — because it was first on the school's annual sports calendar, and he was hooked by his return to the gridiron.

"A coach told me if you're not doing anything else, you might have a future in this," Madsen said. "I worked on being the best receiver I could be."