Junior Colson (born December 6, 2002) is a Haitian-American football

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

. A native of

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

, he moved to the United States at age 9. Colson played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, winning the

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

and the Lott Trophy in 2023.

Early life and high school career

Colson was born in Mirebalais,

. His father died when he was seven years old, and he was placed in an orphanage in

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...

operated by his uncle. At age eight, he met Americans Steve and Melanie Colson who visited Haiti on a church mission after the

2010 Haiti earthquake A disaster, catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (department), Ouest department, a ...

. He was adopted by the Colsons and, after a lengthy adoption and immigration process, moved to Tennessee at age nine in May 2012. He recalled that, on arriving at the airport in the United States, "The first thing I saw in America was a Michigan hat. That's what all of my family members were wearing, they're big Michigan fans." Colson grew up speaking

Haitian Creole Haitian Creole (; ht, kreyòl ayisyen, links=no, ; french: créole haïtien, links=no, ), commonly referred to as simply ''Creole'', or ''Kreyòl'' in the Creole language, is a French-based creole language spoken by 10–12million people wor ...

and learned English only after moving to Tennessee. He also grew up playing

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

and took up

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

, playing linebacker at Ravenwood High School in

Brentwood, Tennessee Brentwood is a city in Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 45,373 as of the 2020 United States census.247Sports Composite 247Sports is an American network of websites that focus mainly on athletic recruitment in college football and basketball. It is owned and operated by Paramount. The website hosts a large network of team-specific subsites, with each subsite be ...

Rankings, Colson was listed as the No. 10 linebacker in the nation in 2021, and the No. 2 prospect in Tennessee. He committed to play college football at Michigan over offers from LSU, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, and Tennessee.

College career

Colson met

Michigan Wolverines football The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins in college football history. The team is known for its ...

coach

Jim Harbaugh James Joseph Harbaugh (; born December 23, 1963) is an American football coach and former quarterback, who is the current and 20th head football coach of the Michigan Wolverines. He played college football at Michigan from 1983 to 1986. He play ...

at the Michigan football camp and was offered a scholarship to play football. He enrolled at Michigan in 2021 and started seven games as a true freshman for the 2021 Wolverines, totaled 61 tackles (fourth most on the team), and was selected as a freshman All-American. As a sophomore, Colson led the 2022 Wolverines with 80 tackles. At the end of the season, he was selected by the conference coaches as a second-team linebacker and by media as a third-team linebacker on the All-Big Ten team. As a junior, Colson led the 2023 Wolverines with 71 tackles. Colson was named an All-Big Ten second-team linebacker by both the coaches and media. He also won the Lott IMPACT Trophy.

References

External links

Big Ten Network video feature on Junior Colson

Michigan Wolverines bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colson, Junior 2002 births Living people American football linebackers Haitian emigrants to the United States Michigan Wolverines football players People from Brentwood, Tennessee Sportspeople from the Nashville metropolitan area People from Centre (department) Players of American football from Tennessee Haitian players of American football