GLASSBORO, NJ - Going from a rookie player to a career-best season, wide receiver John Maldonado of the Rowan football team has proven a lot during his time as a Prof.
 
Maldonado never even thought about playing football until his senior year of high school despite playing the sport since he was five years old after following the footsteps of his older brothers. Originally a college baseball prospect, Maldonado didn't realize his full potential playing football collegiately until a great senior season at Glassboro High School.
 
"It wasn't really until my senior year when I kind of had a breakout year that I realized I could play college football," says Maldonado. "It was a last-minute thing, but once I got the opportunity, I ran with it."
 
Since arriving on campus in 2018, Maldonado has been climbing the ranks. During the 2019 season, he was second in total receiving yards (468) and third in total receptions (31). Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maldonado would have to wait a whole year before he could play again this past fall.
 
Despite the wait, this past season became the best of Maldonado's career as he caught 64 passes for 873 yards and seven touchdowns. He earned NJAC All-Conference First Team honors and led the league in receptions, was fifth in touchdowns and ranked seventh in scoring with 4.9 points per game. Maldonado scored a touchdown in all but two games and had five games in which he accounted for 100-plus yards.
 
Maldonado credits this year's success to the cancellation of the 2020 football season which gave him his chance to fully develop as a player.
 
"I think having that extra year and that time off gave me more time to prepare and more time to train my body and get better," says Maldonado. "[It] definitely added some motivation when we knew we were going to play in 2021 to come out and give it our all."
 
Reflecting on the past season, Maldonado notes how the team made the most of it despite the challenges faced by the team, which included a large influx of new players joining the Profs.
 
"We're a young team [and] we had 77 new players," says Maldonado. "It was just a good steppingstone year for us with a young team, a lot of new players, so I think it was a good year."
 
Internally, Maldonado has seen the growth of his teammates from practice to practice, and he credits more established players on the team, including himself, with mentoring the new players as they transitioned into playing on the collegiate level.
 
"Just being able to keep everybody together and bring everybody together, even though we had a down year, I think [this was] one of the tightest teams I've been a part of," says Maldonado. "I think the older guys definitely played a huge part and showed leadership like mentoring young guys and keeping everybody together and on track."
 
Outside of football, Maldonado maintains an excellent academic record. A junior finance major, Maldonado was recently named to the Philadelphia Academic All-Area Football team with four of his teammates. He was named a Rowan Scholar-Athlete of Distinction in 2019 and was inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma National Honor Society in Spring 2020. While he is not completely sure on what he plans to do once he completes his undergraduate and master's degrees, Maldonado hopes to work in some area of a major sports business or coach football at a collegiate level.
 
For future student-athletes, Maldonado urges them to use their resources and manage their time wisely. "A lot of people at Rowan are willing to help whether it's advisors or people in the Athletic Department." says Maldonado. "You're only here for four years, and maybe a little more, but this is how you're going to set yourself up in life, so you've got to use your time wisely and use it to the best you can."