It's hard to believe that when you watch Zion Malone on a football field that the youngster is relatively new to football or that he is a “youngster.” Only a junior, Malone stands out for fans because of his size – he stands out for coaches because of his ability and commitment and unlimited potential.

“Zion has only been playing football for two years,” said Canton football coach Eric Newton. “This is his first year playing varsity, but for being only 15 years old he has shown that he can play this game at the next level.”

It’s been a very rough season for the Cobras, who headed into the final week of the schedule winless. Canton scored just 12 points in their first eight games and gave up 40 or more points seven times.

Newton, in his second season as coach, has seen plenty of positives from his young team despite the results on the scoreboard.

“We only have eight seniors and the rest are juniors and sophomores so we are putting a very young team on the field each week,” he said. “This year has been pretty rough, but these kids are resilient and they show up every day wanting to keep working to get better. We are excited for the future of Canton football.”

And a big part of that future is Malone.

“Zion has been a leader vocally and by example since we started our off-season training last December,” Newton said. “He gets better every day.” Malone admits the final results have been frustrating but he’s focused on “the main thing.”

“It’s been an amazing experience playing on varsity even though it’s not going how we expected,” he said. “I am having a great time. We are able to forget about the past Friday night and look on to grind in practice all week to get ready for our next game.”

As a captain, Malone tries to get his teammates to play with a positive mindset.

“Our team has a great bond off the field, and we will go get food or go to someone’s house and hang out or swim,” he said. “I try to keep a high energy throughout the team because I feel like our team feeds off what our captains are showing, and if we’re down then the team becomes down.”

Malone, who is a force on the defensive line for the Cobras where he can play either tackle or end, weighs in around 300 pounds, but because of his hard work in the off-season a lot of those pounds are muscle. He spent a lot of his off-season in the weight room, training with Quick Strike Academy and Sound Mind Sound Body and attending college football camps all over the country.

“During this past off-season I was at a lot of camps,” he said. “I attended Wayne State Mega Camp and camps at Michigan, Western Michigan University, Toledo, Bowling Green State University and Eastern Michigan University. I also went to an All-American camp in Atlanta and won MVP of the camp and was invited to the All-American game.”

Zion, 15, is the son of Damon and Ashaki Malone and scores a 3.5 GPA in the classroom. He didn’t play football when he was younger – instead he played AAA Hockey for Victory Honda and Compuware, where he had a great time and built memories and friendships.

But he’s now all in with football.

“In the next couple of years of high school I want to keep getting better and stronger and hopefully be blessed enough to play college football,” said Malone, who plans on majoring in kinesiology.

He offers some sound advice to youngsters just starting out in football.

“Always keep your head up and grind every day and every snap,” he said. “And don’t let what people say about you get to you and keep the main thing the main thing.”