Growing up in South Florida, Josh Reese was a decorated wide receiver at Miami Central High School. Before becoming an inaugural member of the U.S. National Football Team in 2008, Reese was a two-time all-state selection in Florida and was ranked among the top 25 recruits in the state his senior year.

That year, his team went 12-2 and reached the state 6A semifinals as he hauled in 43 catches for 820 yards and 8 touchdowns. He was heavily recruited by numerous schools across Division I, but he wanted to stay close to home so his family could watch him on Saturdays, and settled on attending the University of Central Florida.

With the Knights, Reese – under the guidance of Head Coach George O’Leary – helped the team rise to prominence, culminating with a stunning victory over Baylor in the 2013 Fiesta Bowl. He finished his senior season with 39 catches for 552 yards and six touchdowns.

After going undrafted, he spent time in the preseason with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Philadelphia Eagles. In 2017, he signed with the Washington Valor of the Arena Football League (AFL) and helped the team win ArenaBowl XXXI this past season. As he gears up for another run in the AFL, Reese took some time from his busy schedule to reflect upon his time with Team USA.

EM: Do you remember when you first started playing organized football and why you wanted to play?

JR: I started playing when I was around 7 years old. I had a couple of older brothers who played, and they always talked about practice and playing football. I just remember growing up and playing football in the neighborhood with my friends and I couldn’t wait to get out there and play for real.

Once I got those pads on, it was almost instantly that I was in love with it. I picked up on things pretty fast since I already watched football on TV and played it with my friends, so I already liked it, but once I started playing for real, I was in love with it.

EM: What positions did you play growing up and when did you make the ultimate move to wide receiver?

JR: I played running back growing up at first, which was great because when you’re a kid you always want the ball in your hands. I made that ultimate move outside when I was in sixth grade. I had played some quarterback before that, but that wasn’t for me. Outside was where I was meant to be.

EM: Did you play any other sports as a kid or in high school?

JR: I did, I played basketball and ran track. Up through high school. I stopped running track in ninth grade and stopped playing basketball in tenth. Looking back, I wish I would’ve continued at least running track all the way through. I thought seeing guys focusing on football and I didn’t want to get behind them but looking back it would’ve been better to keep running track because that could’ve helped with my football.

EM: How did the opportunity to be a part of Team USA come about?

JR: I honestly didn’t know too much about it until I heard about it from my coach in high school. I was asking him about some opportunities to play in like all-star games in general and he brought up Team USA. As soon as he explained what it was, I was like ‘Oh yeah, this is something I want to be a part of.’ It was different, and I knew it would something I would love to be a part of.

EM: What were the practices like for you? I have to imagine it was something different since most of the time, all-star games are really regional. What were they like for you?

JR: Yeah, it was a great experience. All of us were the guys that were respected on whatever team we were on across the country. For most of us, this was the first time we got to compete against guys like that. We were all from so many different places, not even in college do you get something like that. Like at UCF we had mainly guys from Florida or Georgia and just a few guys from somewhere else. But, with Team USA, we were from everywhere.

One of my favorite parts about it all was hearing how all these guys came up and how they were raised and how they played football where they were from and what they’re teams were like back home. Getting the chance to talk to guys from places I had never been was really cool.

There was also a lot of friendly competition like you had guys go ‘Oh, well we were undefeated last year and we would’ve beat y’all if we would’ve come down to Florida to play y’all,” or if guys were from Florida they’d say ‘Well we were undefeated up in Broward and if we would’ve come down to Miami-Dade County, we would’ve beat y’all.’ Stuff like that was really fun.

EM: What are some of your favorite memories of the games themselves as part of Team USA?

JR: I remember putting on the uniform and just being really pumped out to go out there and perform. At the games, since it was in Florida that year, I had my family come out and some of my coaches. For me, one of the other things I was excited about was playing against guys from all over the world, places like China where I didn’t even know they had football. I wanted to see what they were like and how they played.

EM: Do you still keep in touch with any of your teammates from back then?

JR: Yeah you know, after the games [USA Football] gave us a laminated sheet with the whole roster on it. When I got to UCF, I took time to look up how some of the guys I was close to were doing. What really got me interested was seeing how much Tyrann Mathieu had blown up! I remember playing with him and thinking he was good, but I don’t think any of us saw him being LSU, Heisman Trophy, ‘Honey Badger’ good!

So, after that I looked up a lot of the guys on social media and I still keep in contact with some of the guys who are down here in Florida still and there were a couple of guys I saw when I was in training camp. When I see these guys we still talk about being on Team USA.

EM: Last thing for you, Josh. What would you say was the best part of your experience as part of the U.S. National Football Team?

JR: I think the best part of my experience was just being with those guys. A lot of us were away from home for the first time and we had a bond and a chemistry in the practices. You wouldn’t think that you could make a bond with a group of guys like that that quickly, but we did. Honestly, the whole time I was with the team, I didn’t have a bad day. It was a great experience for me.