Inglewood junior Sarrel Howard helped the Sentinels football team have a contending season. His contributions as a defensive end and linebacker made the Sentinels the 18th best team in California.
Howard made 43 solo tackles, 12.0 sacks, and 15.0 tackles for loss this past season.
“I prefer defense over offense,” he said. “It’s better to just tackle and make plays like that.”
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Prior to competing in football, Howard was a track and field athlete. He started running track in the eighth grade. Track is a way for Howard to bond with his seven other siblings.
“I seen how we were always going to track meets together for youth track,” Howard said. “I just decided that it would be better for me to try it too and be able to join in with them and experience it. I was happy that I was able to do something with all of them together finally.”
Howard competes in the 100m and 200m. Competing in sprinting events enhanced his ability to make plays in football.
“I want to be explosive, be able to get off the ball and get to the [quarterback],” he said. “I do things like 60-yard sprints, 100s a lot. And I do 150 to build up my endurance.”
In football, a proud moment for Howard was two key plays that he made during the first game of the season against Villa Park.
“It was during the end of the first half and Villa Park was driving down the field, getting ready to score,” Howard said. “I made a sack on second-and-two, I think, to make it third-and-nine … I made a sack and we were all hyped.”
For Howard, being a student athlete requires time management and prioritizing important tasks. He noted that student athletes must “be able to adjust those two worlds, make sure that they’re not interfering.”
“To be a student athlete means when you’re in school, you’re being a scholar and studying for things that you’re gonna do in the future, like find a job, a career,” Howard said. “You make sure you’re also able to make time for being an athlete.”
When it comes to school assignments, Howard does not hesitate to finish the task as soon as he can to get to his team obligations.
“Whenever I get work, I try to finish it as fast as I can so I make as much time for me to be able to focus on my sports,” Howard said. “When I got homework, as soon as I get home, I finished that, and then it’s film right after. When I’m [at school] and I’m studying, I’m doing film here, then I get home, I‘m just studying in my books.”
Howard enjoys taking chemistry. His childhood dream is to become a biochemical engineer. He aspires to do work that relates to chemistry.
