GREEN RIVER — Green River High School senior football standout Braxton Doak signed a letter of intent to play Division I football at Central Michigan University, continuing a career that saw him contribute in all three phases for the Wolves.
Doak delivered one of the top special teams moments in Wyoming this season on Sept. 5, when he connected on a 53-yard field goal on the road against Lander Valley, the longest made field goal in the state this year across all classifications. He finished the season 3-for-5 on field goals and a perfect 25-for-25 on extra points. He also recorded 31 punts for a 31.6-yard net average and handled kickoff duties with 39 kickoffs, including 15 touchbacks and a 32.8-yard net average.
In addition to his work as a specialist, Doak contributed on offense and defense. He caught eight passes for 82 yards and two touchdowns, returned seven kicks for 85 yards, and added 12 tackles and two pass breakups on defense. With his receiving and kicking production combined, he totaled 46 points on the season, which ranked second on the team.
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Doak said his path to a Division I opportunity was built through consistent preparation.
“The weight room, that’s one thing here that I tell people right now is one of the most important things for our town,” Doak said. “We have a lot of great athletes but the weight room is one of the most important things, and that’s one thing that helped me a lot. I didn’t really learn that it was as important as it was until about my sophomore year. Just consistent work and having a plan with what you’re going to do when you work out, that’s one thing. I wouldn’t say I worked 100 times harder than someone else, I just had a routine that I stuck to and worked on the things that I needed to work on while I was out kicking.”
At Central Michigan, Doak expects to focus primarily on placekicking and kickoffs.
“I’m mainly probably going to do kicking, not much punting probably, but I’ll mainly do kickoffs and placekicking as need be,” Doak said.
His role next season will be determined during fall camp.
“It just depends on how it all goes,” Doak said. “There’s usually only two kickers on each roster because they can only bring six roster spots for game day for specialists. It’s only going to be me and this other kid who are pure kickers, so depending on if I beat them out, or he beats me out, that will depend on if I redshirt or not.”
Looking back on his high school career, Doak pointed to both individual and team moments.
“I would say, definitely a personal memory was breaking the school record against Lander,” Doak said. “That was one of my favorite personal memories. For a team memory, I would say, it was definitely beating Evanston this year because that was a huge conference win for us to get into the playoffs, and we haven’t been since I got here. It’s been quite a while since we’ve been, and to continue that culture, we competed with almost every team we played with this year.”
Doak said the relationships he built during the recruiting process played a major role in his decision to choose Central Michigan.
“It was definitely the coaches, they are very high level,” Doak said. “They’re on an uptrend. Central Michigan made a bowl game this year, which I believe was something that hasn’t been done since 2021. They just had a whole new staff and the guy who recruited me is from the University of Florida. He was there for a while, and he coached some pretty noticeable guys like Evan McPherson, he’s a kicker for the Bengals. He coached Tommy Townsend who plays for the Bills. He has just coached a lot of guys who have gone to the NFL in the last like 10 years. That’s one thing I saw in my decision to go there. He’s more of a personable coach, like he wanted to learn about me, which is something I didn’t get from any other D1 coach, because at that level, it’s just straight business. So when I was talking to him, he always texted me every single day, called me all the time, asking me about my family, about me in general. That’s one thing that no other coach did and that’s one thing that stood out to me.”
Doak said he is looking forward to the setting at Central Michigan.
“Yeah, it’s definitely it’s not too big, but it’s nice that it’s in the very middle of Michigan,” Doak said. “So it’s around every major city, like we have great facilities there, like they have everything you could think of there, so that’s gonna be nice. And then they have a lot of fishing there, which is that’s one thing that I like. Honestly, it is kind of like Wyoming, a little bit.”
Doak also plans to continue playing soccer at Green River this spring.
“Yeah, for sure,” Doak said. “I’m gonna be playing soccer, and that’s one thing I’m excited for because we’re looking really good this year.”
His father, Greg Doak, said he has watched his son pursue his goal for years.
“I’m proud of him,” Greg Doak said. “Just knowing how motivated he is, he pretty much did all this on his own. He told me back when he was little. He was like I want to be an athlete, and it’s like he’s 10 years old, and now he proved it to me.”
Check out photos of the signing below.
