Rocco Della Vedova | Quarterback / Wide Receiver | Class of 2030 | St. Matthew’s High School | Ottawa, Ontario

Rocco Della Vedova has spent six years learning two jobs at once.

The Class of 2030 player out of Ottawa, Ontario lines up at quarterback and at wide receiver, and he doesn’t treat either as a fallback. He talks about them as two windows into the same game. “Being able to play both positions helps me understand the game better and makes it even more exciting,” he said.

It’s a rare thing to hear a young player describe genuinely. Most dual-position kids are doing it because a coach needed a body somewhere. Rocco seems to have gotten curious about what the other side of the throw feels like. “As a quarterback, I love reading the field, leading my teammates, and making plays happen,” he said. “Playing wide receiver lets me use my speed and focus on timing and execution.”

The two roles taught him different vocabularies, and he can separate them. Ask what makes a great quarterback and he lists leadership, communication, and decision-making. Ask about receiver and the list changes entirely: focus, consistency, and trust with your quarterback. Then he collapses both into one standard. “No matter the position, effort and preparation are what separate good players from great ones.”

Football got him with the obvious things first — competition and teamwork — and kept him with the parts that take longer to appreciate. “Over time I’ve really fallen in love with the strategy and leadership that come with playing quarterback,” he said.

That love has been tested. Asked about the hardest stretch of his football journey, Rocco describes something a lot of young players go through and very few will say out loud.

“My biggest challenge was dealing with setbacks and not always being put in the position I felt I earned. It was hard, but I learned to stay focused, keep working, and not let it affect my confidence.”

There’s no complaint in it and no name attached. He doesn’t relitigate the decision. He tells you what it cost him and what he did with it. “That experience made me mentally stronger and helped me grow as both a player and a teammate.” For a player who splits time between two positions, that’s not an abstract lesson — versatility and disappointment tend to arrive together, and how a kid handles the second one determines whether the first one becomes an advantage or a grievance.

His favorite quarterback is Patrick Mahomes, and the reason is temperament rather than highlight. “I like how he stays calm under pressure and always finds a way to make plays. He’s a great leader and teammate, and that’s something I try to learn from in my own game.” Calm under pressure is a useful thing to admire when you’ve already had a season that didn’t go your way.

His goals are modest in language and demanding in practice. Six months: sharpen fundamentals, decision-making, and confidence at both positions, and become more consistent and dependable for his team. Twelve months: keep developing as a leader, compete at a higher level, and be the best player and teammate he can be. Note how often the word teammateshows up. He uses it as often as he uses his own positions.

The person he credits most is his dad. “He’s been my biggest mentor and supporter, always pushing me to work hard, stay confident, and believe in myself.” He extends the credit outward from there to the coaches who keep coaching him up.

And the moment he’s proudest of isn’t a throw or a catch. It’s winning provincials. “All the hard work, preparation, and trust in each other paid off, and being able to celebrate that together made it really special.” Given the chance to name his own best play, he named his team’s best day.

Rocco Della Vedova is four high school seasons from graduating, fluent in two positions, and already past the part where a setback decides who you become.

Reaching Past Ontario

Rocco’s proudest football moment is a provincial championship. It’s a real accomplishment and a real title — and the honest reality is that the people who evaluate quarterbacks and receivers for a living are mostly not watching Ontario high school football on a Friday night.

That’s not a problem with his ability. It’s a problem of geography, and it’s the one thing a player genuinely can’t fix by training harder. Distribution is what an upgraded QB Magazine membership actually adds, and for a player based outside the United States it does more work than it does for almost anyone else on our roster.

Custom graphics at both positions. Our design team builds pieces from a member’s own photos and milestones — season openers, game performances, championship graphics, camp announcements. For a dual-position player, that means his quarterback work and his receiver work both get presented properly instead of one getting buried. A coach seeing a clean, publication-format graphic reads it as a player being covered, which is a different signal than a family post.

Two audiences, neither of them local. Content run through QB Magazine’s Instagram and X accounts lands in front of quarterback trainers, camp directors, coaches, and football families across North America. Because Rocco plays receiver too, Wide Receiver Magazine is a second channel covering the other half of what he does. His own account reaches Ottawa. Ours reach the people he’d otherwise have to fly to meet.

Four seasons of accumulation. Familiarity is built by showing up repeatedly rather than by one post traveling far. A player who has been appearing in coverage since his freshman year arrives at a camp or a showcase as a name people have already encountered — which is worth the most to someone whose film isn’t landing in anyone’s feed by default. Starting that in Grade 9 gives him the full four-year curve.

A profile that carries across the border. Every article, graphic, and post stays permanently on his QB Magazine profile. It’s one link that holds both positions, the provincial title, and whatever the next four years produce — something he can hand to a camp, a coach, or a program without asking anyone to go looking.

He said effort and preparation are what separate good players from great ones. This is the part that makes sure the people who matter can see it.

More info: quarterbackmagazine.com/memberships