It’s the summer of 2020. The entire world is in shambles. School might not even reopen in the fall. And a high school football season? That’s just a wild dream.
Senior year might not go to plan, but a future outside of Sumter, SC, awaits Justus Boone.
So, while most people his age were still sound asleep in their beds, Florida’s freshman defensive lineman had already been training for hours. His principal regularly passed him running on the side of the road while on his 7 a.m. drive to work.
And when his high school coach saw him in the fall, he immediately knew Boone put the work in over the summer. Coach Mark Barnes could not see his players at all from the time of the shutdown in March until mid-August. Without summer workouts, he had no idea what to expect.
“It was a time where guys that were serious about what they were doing were out there doing their own thing,” Barnes said. “Running and trying to find a place to lift and that type of thing. The guys who weren’t serious were not doing that. I knew when I saw him on August 17 that he was even more serious about what he was doing, because he was in better shape. He came in here bigger, stronger.”
But Barnes noticed a change in Boone even before then.
Like most teenagers, Boone entered high school with a much different plan for his future than he left with. At one point, he didn’t even know if he wanted to continue playing football.
While he was a great football player, he also excelled on the basketball court. He surpassed the 6-foot mark in middle school and believed that was his path to success early on in high school.
After his freshman year, he chose to transfer to local private school Laurence Manning Academy to focus on basketball. He continued playing football there, but he considered hanging his cleats up during that time.
His brother, Kirkland Boone, saw his potential and did not want to see him throw that away.
“I wanted his mind on football because I could truly see what he could do,” his brother said. “His mind sometimes took away from football because of the results of basketball. I remember he actually didn’t want to play football at one point. And of course, I wasn’t going to let him let football go just like that … We were not a one-sport household and we never quit.”
Around that same time, interest from college football programs started to pour in. The real path to success became clear, and he re-enrolled at Sumter before the end of the school year.
“I never worried when he left,” Barnes said. “I knew he was coming back. It was just whether he was going to come back mid-year or at the end of the year. I say this as a compliment to Justus, he’s so competitive that I knew that wasn’t going to scratch his itch over there. He wanted to be in an environment where you’re playing with the best and against the best. He knew where that was.”
From that point on, he put his head down and went to work. And not only on the football field. Barnes remembered after Boone worked out with the team from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. throughout the summer, he would pack up his things and head straight to his job working on cars.
“He’s never been a lazy kid,” Barnes said. “In the time we live in now, we have so many players that are the opposite. They come here, they do their workout, and they go back home and get on the PlayStation or XBOX or whatever. He’s always been a worker … I think that’s interesting in today’s time. In the old days, that was normal.”
Boone never let the big-time college offers go to his head. Instead, he found a new sense of maturity.
He bought into putting his hand on the ground after playing linebacker most of his life. And he still knew how to have fun with the game, but he also knew football was now more than just a game. It was his ticket.
As a high school coach in the Carolinas for decades, Barnes had relationships with college coaches from around the country. He mostly chose to stay on the sideline while helping Boone navigate his recruitment, but he took comfort in knowing he would be in the hands of defensive line coach David Turner at Florida.
“I knew he was a guy that I could trust,” he said. “And in that business, you think you can trust them all, but that’s not the case. There’s different dynamics that go on with their recruitment. I knew he was going to be straight up with me, and I think he knew I was going to be straight up with him because of our past relationship … I felt at ease because of the quality of person that Coach Turner is.”
It came as no surprise when Boone chose the Gators shortly after his junior season.
“It’s the same trait as why I knew he was going to come back here,” Barnes said. “He wants to play at the highest level, at the best program, against the best people. A lot of players don’t do that. A lot of players are more about, ‘Where can I go play right now?’ And I think there’s a lot of competitiveness about him that wants to be with the best and play against the best. Florida was a natural fit for that.”
A perfect fit for both sides, Boone epitomized the Gator Standard before he ever stepped foot on campus. Barnes described him as a truly selfless player, always willing to do whatever it took to help his team win.
All of those early morning runs are now paying off as Boone has already impressed through Florida’s first weeks of spring practice. The 6-4, 265-pound lineman with a frame to build on has incredible potential for years to come in Gainesville.
“He’s not going to be a prima donna,” Barnes said. “He’s going to want to play every play and give it his all every play. He understands he’s going to work hard in the weight room, he’s going to work hard in the offseason, and he’s going to pay attention during their position meetings. He understands how all of those things make you a better football player.”