Recruiting Report: Leonard Manuel (2020)
2020 athlete Leonard Manuel is blowing up on both the gridiron and basketball court.
The 6’5″, 200-pounder has 26 total offers for football as a wide receiver. For basketball, he has an offer from UF and interest from FSU and Georgia. To be honest, the kid is an athletic freak.
He says he’s going to try to play both sports in college. But right now his main focus is on his academics.
Manuel averaged 9.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.7 assists as a freshman starter at Ocala Vanguard. He’s going to stay at the school to play football, but he says he plans to play elsewhere for basketball this season.
This summer, Manuel is running with Thunderstruck on the Adidas Gauntlet.
“It’s going well,” he told Prep Hoops Florida. “We’ve been winning a lot. We are playing up and playing the 16U teams. We are young but we play together.”
Manuel started his sports life as a football player in 4th grade. Prior to the start of 5th grade, he took up basketball.
When asking him whether dunking at a basketball or scoring a touchdown was a better feeling, he said that is a tough question.
“They are both good feelings because when you dunk a basketball you get everyone hyped up,” he said. “Everyone wants to see that. When you score touchdowns, people get excited when you get in the end zone.”
Manuel says football helps him be more aggressive when attacking the rim in basketball. Then on the other side, basketball helps him with conditioning for football.
He pointed to his ability to get to the basket, dribble and play defense as his biggest strengths. Manuel is aiming to get better as a shooter.
This isn’t your normal rising sophomore. Manuel is very gifted for his age in both basketball and football. If he can play both sports at the next level, then more power to him. Either way, his stock is growing for both sports and he’s turning heads on the basketball court with each game.