From Pueblo East to the NFL: Why Athletics & Beyond Celebrates Players Like Kain Medrano
Kain Medrano's path to the NFL started on the fields and courts of Pueblo, Colorado. He played wide receiver and ran track at Pueblo East High School, winning a state title in both the discus and shot put. Recruiting services ranked him among the top prospects in Colorado, but not as a linebacker. He signed with UCLA as a receiver.
That changed in 2020, when UCLA moved him to defense. Over the next several seasons, Medrano grew into one of the Bruins' most productive players. In his final college season, he recorded 72 tackles, 1.5 sacks, and two interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown. His teammates named him a captain, and the Big Ten conference named him Third-Team All-Big Ten.
At the 2025 NFL Combine, Medrano ran a 4.46-second 40-yard dash, the fastest time among all linebackers at the event. Washington selected him in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, the 205th overall pick, and he signed his four-year rookie contract that May. He made the Commanders' active roster and appeared in nine games during his rookie season.
Medrano is exactly the kind of player Athletics & Beyond was built to support.
At A&B, we work with young athletes across four pillars: sport performance, academic support, mental health, and college and career readiness. Kain came through our programs on his way to where he is now, and his journey is a real example of what those pillars are meant to produce. When people hear that a youth sports nonprofit spends time preparing kids for careers outside of athletics, some assume that means we discourage them from chasing the pros. That assumption is backwards. We built our sport performance programs specifically because we want kids to have a real shot at playing at the highest level, if that is where their work and talent take them.
Medrano's own path shows why that support matters at every stage, not just the ones that end in a draft card. He did not arrive at UCLA as a linebacker. He arrived as a wide receiver, ranked outside the top ten at his original position in his own state. The switch to defense, the years of development under his position coaches, and the jump from a mid-level recruit to a sixth-round NFL pick all took time, coaching, and support systems built around him, both athletic and personal.
That is the part of the story that gets lost when people only see the highlight reel. A kid does not go from a three-star high school recruit to an NFL roster spot on athletic ability alone. It takes structure around him: someone tracking his academics so eligibility never becomes a problem, someone paying attention to his mental health so the pressure of a position change and a major college program does not break him, and someone thinking about his life after football before he ever needs it.
That last piece is the one we will not compromise on, no matter how far a kid goes in the sport. Even for an athlete on an NFL roster, the football career itself is short. The average NFL career lasts a few years. A degree, a set of career skills, and a plan for what comes next are what carry a player through the other fifty or sixty years of his life. Preparing kids for that is not a hedge against them failing to go pro. It is preparation for the entire life they are going to live, football included.
Kain Medrano's story is still being written. He is a young player working to secure his place on an NFL roster, and every season in the league is its own competition. Whatever comes next for him, Athletics & Beyond will keep pointing to his path as proof of what is possible when a kid gets both kinds of support at once: the coaching that builds a professional athlete, and the structure that builds a person who can succeed no matter what career he ends up in.
Roderick Rogers
Athletics and Beyond
9/22/26
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