Servite athlete signs 7-figure racing deal, gives up football – Orange County Register

Servite junior Ryan Prosser is a professional off-road truck racing driver who signed a lucrative contract. (Courtesy of Harlen Foley/Dirt Nation)

A Servite student-athlete signed a seven-figure professional sports contract this summer.

He doesn’t play football. Or baseball, or basketball or soccer or any high school sport.

Ryan Prosser, a 17-year-old junior at the school, is a driver who competes in Trophy Truck Unlimited Class off-road racing.

He is on the Amplex Racing team that in July signed him to what Prosser described as “between one million and two million” dollars.

Prosser finished eighth among the 23 racers in the unlimited truck division of the prestigious Mint 400, known as “The Great American Off-Road Race,” in March in Nevada. He was the youngest driver in the field.

“I finished ahead of guys I look up to,” Prosser said. “I beat some of the top guys. And that’s what pulled the contract.”

Prosser played quarterback in the Servite football program until he signed his Amplex deal.

Professional athletes in other sports are contractually disallowed from participating in other sports. The Major League Baseball standard contract includes the clause banning an MLB player’s participation in “certain other sports [that] may impair or destroy” the player’s ability to play baseball. Auto racing is on the list of prohibited non-baseball sports.

It’s the other way around for Prosser. He can’t play football. Doing so, according to his father Ron Prosser, would jeopardize his contract with Amplex.

He is eligible to play sports at Servite. His CIF amateur standing remains intact because auto racing is not a CIF sport.

Next up for Prosser is the Silver State 300 in Nevada, Sept. 22 and 23. This is Prosser’s fourth season in racing.

“I started with a little ATV (all-terrain vehicle), a 170(cc), as a weekend thing with my buddies,” he said. “Then I entered a race and I started winning. I started moving up to bigger cars and last year I found a truck and it was the perfect opportunity.”

And a rewarding opportunity, too.

NOTES

We’re closing in on Rankings Season in county football. Rankings Season is when parents whose sons are on teams that are 4-0 wonder why their team is not in the Orange County Top 25 when a 1-3 team is in the Top 25. The answer to them is, please understand “strength of schedule” and why your 4-0 team’s coach wisely will not pursue a game against the 1-3 team. …

CIF State football championship games henceforth will be played at neutral sites. The concept behind that is to keep state finals from being played on home teams’ inferior playing surfaces on bad-weather dates when all-weather fields are available elsewhere. …

Looking ahead to next week’s top games in O.C. football: Newport Harbor at San Juan Hills, Corona del Mar at San Clemente, and Los Alamitos vs. Servite at Cerritos College are splendid matchups. Also, the El Dorado-Valencia neighborhood rivalry game at Valencia High, La Habra vs. Orange at El Modena High and Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks at JSerra. …

A couple of the bigger results in girls volleyball on Tuesday were Mater Dei losing to Mira Costa (25-21,25-21, 25-19) and San Juan Hills defeating Edison (21-25, 21-25, 25-21, 25-15, 16-14). It was the first loss for Mater Dei (12-1) which is No. 1 in the Orange County Top 10. Edison is at No. 6 while San Juan Hills is not in the Top 10 … at this moment.

MaxPreps.com’s girls flag football national rankings have Newport Harbor at No. 7, Woodbridge at No. 9, El Dorado at No. 15 and Crean Lutheran at No. 23. Those rankings looked good Monday when Newport Harbor beat Woodbridge 13-12. …

The Saddleback Cup Invitational cross country meet is Friday at Trabuco Hills High on a 2-mile course. Racing starts at 6:15 p.m. with lower-levels competition. Girls varsity racing is scheduled to start at 7:25 p.m. followed by boys at 7:40 …

Western alum Ahmad Hammouri, 20, is the youngest member of the Jordan National Team that played Team USA in the FIBA World Cup on Wednesday. Hammouri scored three points with two assists as the USA won 110-62. When Western beat Dos Pueblos 65-49 in the 2022 CIF Southern Section Division 4A championship game, Hammouri scored 27 of his game-high 35 points in the second half. …

The CIF-SS office lost a good one Thursday when Anita Fopma worked her final day after 25 years of service. Her title was “Program Coordinator” which meant she did just about everything including sending media folks news and information and helping manage various championship events and CIF-SS Council meetings. Her kindness and patience will always be remembered here.