Play college football AND get paid? It's happening at The Apprentice School

Good morning, and thanks for your continued support of Extra Points.

I'm back in Chicago and still digging my way through all the emails and FOIAs that came in while I was on vacation. We'll be back to your regular stream of newsletters, authored by yours truly, next week.

Today, I want to publish one last freelance story, via Reese Becker, of VirginiaPreps.com, DullesDistrict.com, and elsewhere. Reese emailed me a few weeks ago, wanting to write about a school that is doing college football differently from any other school I'm familiar with. He told me about a school where the athletes work a full-time job, get paid, even get workman's comp insurance...but still get to play college football. Everybody works, everybody gets paid, and everybody plays.

I'll let Daniel take it from here.

Tucked away inside the Newport News Shipyard on the banks of the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia, sits a small, NCAA-adjacent school offering players a unique opportunity.

A chance to play college football, earn a good living, and learn a valuable trade.

The Apprentice School, founded in 1919, has been playing on the gridiron for over 100 years. Players can go down four, five, or eight-year apprenticeship paths, but, unlike NCAA member institutions, are not required to be chasing a traditional degree, setting the school apart from others.

Upon entry into the school, which has around 800 students and a 6% acceptance rate, freshmen begin at $18.87 per hour and work a tradition 40-hour work week, receiving raises every 90 days until they hit their minimum of $65k upon graduation in trades from welding and electrical engineering, to building nuclear-powered ships and submarines for the Navy.

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