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.
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