There are people who play football. Then there are football players. Brandon Schrader is the latter.

He’s not just someone who decided to give the game and try and enjoyed a few years. He began playing the sport the first chance he got and plans to keep playing until he no longer can.

Football is a part of Brandon Schrader. It has been for 13 years, since he signed up for the Northwestern Youth Association flag team. And the career that started so long ago will continue for at least four more as he recently signed a letter of intent to play at Alderson Broaduss, a Division II school in West Virginia.

“It’s probably always been a goal,” the Northwestern Lehigh senior said of playing college football. “Since I was really young it’s been a goal.”

Like most football players, Schrader dreamed of playing in the NFL. The 5-foot-11, 230-pound lineman realized at some point that goal was very hard to attain, and he switched his focus playing at the next level.

He was being recruited by Division III schools such as Lycoming and Lebanon Valley before Alderson Broaduss came along.

“It was awesome when I started getting emails from coaches,” he said. “It was overwhelming at times. When I heard from Alderson Broaddus I got really excited because it’s Division II.”

Schrader liked the campus and the school because it’s small and rural, not unlike the high school he attends.

“It reminds me of New Tripoli,” he said. “It’s on the top of a mountain. It’s a small school where I can get to know my professors.

“It was great going to Northwestern. I love the coaches, the atmosphere.”

Schrader has been a three-year varsity player and two-year starter for the Tiger football team. This season he made 17 solo tackles and had 39 total stops. He recovered a fumble and even had two rushing attempts and one rushing touchdown. He earned All-Colonial League Second Team honors at offensive tackle and an honorable mention at defensive tackle.

On offense he blocked for a good portion of Harry Hall’s career leading 5,056 rushing yards and 55 rushing touchdowns.

He enjoyed every part of his high school football career, from practice to spending time with teammates to those special Friday nights under the lights.

He enjoys the camaraderie of the game and working with his teammates to form one unit.

One memory from his high school career sticks out the most. He was part of Northwestern’s 2015 Colonial League and District 11 championship team.

“That was really, really awesome,” he said. “Winning districts was an unbelievable feeling.”

Schrader expects to be slotted somewhere on the AB Battlers depth chart as a defensive end, but hopes to work his way to the interior of the line. Most of that work will come in the weight room, where he feels at home.

He’s been lifting regularly since middle school, when his father, Michael, took him to the weight room for the first time.

He credits all of his coaches for helping shape him as a football player. At the varsity level, Tigers assistants Dave Kerschner and Greg Mitchell are two coaches who he worked with most in the weight room and with his position group.

Schrader hopes to get some playing time as a freshman in college and eventually move into a starting role.

“I’m just going to work hard and try to get as much playing time as I can,” he said.

He plans to major in criminal justice and minor in athletic coaching. He wants to be a state trooper and would also like to stay with the game after college as a football coach at some level.

A day might come down the road when someone tells Schrader he can no longer be a football player. But he never plans to walk away from the game completely.