A-C Football’s Hudson Sellers pursuing his ‘bigger purpose’ post graduation

Annville-Cleona head football coach Matt Gingrich has roughly 15 emails stashed in his recruiting folder.

Each message is from a college recruiter, spanning different NCAA levels. Each email is crafted differently but angles for the same goal.

Hudson Sellers’ name is always in the subject line. The A-C senior is a hot commodity on the football recruiting trail. Yet, the lone issue for each program: their email and their request will never bear fruit.

Sellers, despite the wide range of interest, will enter the workforce following graduation. The All-State selection will become a carpenter.

“I’ve always been working with my hands, and I knew I enjoyed that,” Sellers said. “I knew I couldn’t do an office job because that would drive me crazy. So I decided to go to CTC, and carpentry just stood out to me as something that would be fun. I would always go on mission trips, and we would build ramps and houses. And that would always bring me a lot of joy to see what I could bring people joy with making stuff with my hands.”

Sellers’ passion for the trade was rooted at home. He grew up on a dairy farm and has been hands-on — in some shape or form — since his youth.

His initial dream is to flip houses and, one day, start his own business.

“With carpentry, you can look at a building, pick out almost anything, and be like, ‘I can do that. I can build that. I can make that happen,’” Sellers said. “It’s just such a cool thing to have pride in. That’s kind of what drove me to that.”

Sellers’ defining characteristic is driven, and his air-tight schedule is reflective. In addition to his football and CTC responsibilities, he played basketball in the winter and is a member of the throws assembly for A-C track and field this spring.

Sellers was a key pulse to a Dutchmen group that reached the District 3 Class 3A football semifinals last fall and forged an 8-3 record. The senior collected 119 tackles from his defensive-end spot while amassing 30 sticks for loss and 13 sacks.

“I love sports, but I love the team more,” Sellers said. “So if I’m going to miss something, just going into work instead of going to college, it’s going to be the team that I played with instead of the actual sport.”

The statement mirrored how Sellers approached each sport and how he’s attacking his post-graduation plans. He was a player who always put the team first before any individual accolades.

Sellers admitted he “limped into” basketball season after a grueling four months on the gridiron. But just like with track and field, leaving his friends wasn’t an option.

“I didn’t want to let them down, and I didn’t want to regret (not playing),” Sellers said. “So I just went out there and had fun. And that’s just what I really loved — was just being able to be there for the guys.”

Even when competing at his peak, going to war with his brothers was Sellers’ greatest reward. Gingrich tabbed him the “hardest worker,” and Sellers’ determination and tenacity rubbed off on those around him.

Sellers struggled in his junior football season. That offseason, he tapped into the weight room and gained 20 to 30 pounds of muscle. Coaches also found his calling at the end of the defensive line.

“I was able to see all my hard work pay off,” Sellers said. “But before that, just the way I’m wired, I was always one of the hardest workers and football pushed me and made me into someone that perseveres through all the tough stuff. … Because I know moving forward, it’s not always going to be pretty and nice days. So it’s just being able to have that mindset to get through the rough days, to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“The highest praise that I can give Hudson,” Gingrich said, “if my sons could turn out like him, as a person and anywhere close to as good as him, I would just consider myself lucky.”

And Sellers still has praise from college programs. Although they know his decision, and those 15 emails will forever remain stashed, they’d welcome him in a split second.

“I found out these last couple years that for myself, I’ll only push myself so far,” he said. “But when it comes to the team, I’ll go above and beyond. And I think that’s cool, just being a part of something bigger, being able to know that you can push yourself beyond what you thought is possible when you’re part of a bigger team and a bigger cause. So I’m just trying to find where my bigger cause is at right now post high school, and I’m excited for it.”