It began with a phone call and ended with a whistle. Between picking up the phone last year and stepping onto the field on Jan. 7,  plays were practiced, memories were made and brothers were bonded. 

Coppell senior kicker Nicolas Radicic and cornerback Braxton Myers, who graduated in December and is now enrolled at Ole Miss, experienced a six-day event with two practices a day, hotel room shenanigans and lifelong bonds forged between brothers who had only met that week.

“Nobody really cared about what the result was, really it was about the whole weekend ahead of it,” Radicic said. “We traveled around San Antonio driving scooters and making memories, it was a fun experience. I’ve got guys who, even though I’ve just met them, I can call my brothers. When you’re around people who have a lot in common with you, who’ve all gone down their own paths and how we all got here, it was great.”

The All-American Bowl is an accolade given to high school football players for being the best, not just of their school or region, but across the country. With past attendees combining for 86 Super Bowl champions and 16 Heisman Trophy finalists, the invite is steeped in prestige and validation.

“It cements their legacy as high school football players,” Coppell football coach Antonio Wiley said. “They’ve been recognized as some of the top athletes in their class and the bowl gives them that last chance to compete on a high school level before getting to college. Once you’re there, with someone paying for your education, you have a job to do; the Bowl is that last chance to just be a kid and play the game for fun.”

Radicic got his shot off his leg, sending a 55-yard field goal through the uprights and a call to his inbox confirming his invitation to the game. 

“I had to compete against 300 top kids in my class at a two-day camp. It came down to eight kids and the last man to miss a field goal,” Radicic said. “I kicked about 15, 50 plus-yard field goals and I finished with a 55 yarder. I heard about this game and got an invite to fly out to Las Vegas and compete for the spot. Once I [was] selected I knew I had to flip the switch, it was a dream to get that spot.”

Myers could not be reached for comment.

As their story concludes, Radicic and Myers are aware of the impact and legacy they’ve left behind as Coppell athletes and community members, and their coaches know it.

“For seniors, setting the bar is a big deal,” Wiley said. “When you walk out of a program, you set that bar as high as you can, and you make everybody chase it. I think we have a lot of young talent here and those guys should be chasing the guys like Nic Radicic and Braxton Myers, trying to outdo their accolades and be better. If you chase somebody, even if you fall short of what they’ve done, you’re still going to land in a really great place, but if you exceed what they’ve done, where’s that going to take you?”

The selection is a culmination of hard work, but not the end of their journey – Radicic will enroll at Indiana University and become a Hoosier this fall while Myers has already enrolled at Ole Miss as a current Landshark. The two aren’t only football players, rather using football as an avenue to develop themselves as human beings.

“There was no one thing that [Radicic and Myers] did, it was a cumulative body of work, long hours on the football field practicing, mastering and perfecting their craft,” Wiley said. “It’s like playing a video game: you’re working through stages. The All-American Bowl is that final stage in that high school era of athletics, but it’s also the door to that college era. The great ones are the ones who can handle that big transition – you’ve got to prove yourself again.”

Their chapter as Cowboys coming to a close, both young men seek to turn the page onto the new life they’re writing for themselves. You might find them spending hours on the gridiron or rolling around the city on scooters, but rest assured that they’ll be working hard to set the bar ever higher for those that seek to follow in their footsteps.

“They’re free spirits out there, but we make sure we also build the young men, making sure that they’re always doing the right things, in the hallways as well as on the football field,” Coppell assistant Abu Conteh said. “I think that’s what we do a good job of: we let them be themselves, but we hold them accountable at the same time. They’ve bought in and they truly believe that they’re winners and that they’re able to go as far as they possibly can imagine.”

Follow Sahith (@SahithMocharla) and @SidekickSports on Twitter.