OVIEDO, Fla.---

If you want something, sometimes you have to reach out and grab it.  Sebastian Vargas has no trouble doing that on a sunny morning at Oviedo High School’s football field.  The senior receiver is meticulously running routes as part of his work out routine.  

“I like to make plays,” Vargas says.   “When you get the ball in my hands I usually have a lot of yards after the catch.”

Vargas had over 1000 all purpose yards and 9 touchdowns this season for Oviedo.  It was exactly the kind of production he hoped for when he transferred from Winter Park.

“They had a great QB Luke Rucker he was a big part of that,” Vargas says.  “I felt like I had a great opportunity to come here and be that guy.”

Vargas was definitely that guy for the Lions, the problem was getting college coaches to see it.  He earned offers from division two schools like Davenport and Northwood in the state of Michigan, but his dream was to go division 1.  The coronavirus pandemic was limiting his visability, so he took matters into his own hands.

“End of the season I was posting my highlights,” Vargas says.  “I saw that the director of player personnel followed me on twitter and I just kept tagging them and reaching out to them.”

The director of player personnel was Brandon Lawson and the school was UCF.  That follow ultimately led to a phone call conversation and an invitation to a football camp with the Knights.

“It was my dream school from the start,” Vargas said.  “It’s right down the road, I could play in front of my family and my friends.”

After performing well at the camp Vargas committed as a preferred walk on.

“As a walk on you have to do everything right.  There is no room for error,” Josh Kelly says as he plays catch with Vargas during their work out.

Kelly is a former walk on at UCF himself and played there from 2017-19 as a defensive back and special teams player.  He’s helping train and prepare Vargas for what’s next.

“UCF is getting a whole new beast,” Kelly says.  “What they saw when they were recruiting him, they don’t know what type of guy is coming in there.  He’s only getting bigger, faster, stronger.”

They are putting in work on mornings like this because they know the job isn’t done.  Vargas believes if he can get on the field, he could earn a scholarship.

"The hard work is going to show,” Vargas says.  “When you leave a star in the closet somebody is going to see that star shine and it’s happening.”