After leading his team to an undefeated 13-0 season and 2A State Championship as a junior, Phoenix (Ariz.) Christian quarterback Josh Schlueter had a strong showing at the Nike Combine in San Diego and has seen a wide-ranging interest from schools around the country. Schlueter, who threw for 2,200 yards and 25 touchdowns last season on his way to being named an all-state player, provided ASUDevils.com a look into his summer.

“I missed some of the camps I was going to go to because I spraining my ankle in practice about five weeks ago,” Schlueter informed us when asked about his summer schedule. “Just now I can run on it again and I’m going to try and make Cal senior day and Colorado and Colorado State (camps). The other ones in July I just couldn’t run on it and coach said that if I wasn’t 100% I shouldn’t go. It wasn’t a serious sprain, I mean I could walk I just couldn’t sprint and stuff.

“It’s going pretty good,” said the 6-foot-2, 200-pound signal caller when asked about how he has taken to the recruiting process. “We sent out film and I sent a letter to the schools I couldn’t make it to. We sent that out probably a week or so ago and so we’re waiting to see how they respond to it in the next couple of weeks.”

If winning a State Championship is difficult, repeating may be even tougher to do considering the talent loss that usually inflicts a strong high school team from one season to the next as a result of graduation. If things don’t work out for Phoenix Christian this coming season however, it won’t be because they approached the off-season in lackadaisical fashion.

“I have speed training in the morning Monday through Thursday and then I have lifting from [3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.] Monday through Thursday,” Schlueter said of his rigorous off-season regimen. “We lift and we do running and a lot of stuff. Basically we work out most of the day and I only have time to come home and take a nap in between.”

So far, all of the hard work is apparently paying off according to Schlueter, as Phoenix Christian has faired quite well in summer league play.

“We’ve had two big tournaments -- we’ve had a lot of games -- but we’ve had two big tournaments and we finished second in both,” he said. “We started out a little shaky because we’ve got a lot of new guys and both our receivers graduated and stuff but we really picked it up and one tournament, the City of Streets Tournament, we were the only small school there and the rest of the teams were [4A] and 5A and we finished second.”

Schlueter is hearing regularly from Cal, UTEP, Wyoming, Oregon, Nebraska, Arizona and Arizona State and Stanford, Boise State, Washington, Washington State, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Purdue, and Illinois are among the others who have showed varying degrees of interest. A number of these programs have called Schlueter in recent months and some have visited him at his high school. Schlueter, who is an excellent student, has yet to receive a scholarship offer.

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