Sam LaPorta (born January 12, 2001) is an

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 wit ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense (sports), offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide ...

for the

Iowa Hawkeyes The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have varsity teams in 22 sports, 8 for men and 14 for women; a 15th women's sport will be added in 2023. The teams partici ...

. He was named the

Kwalick–Clark Tight End of the Year Coaches and media of the Big Ten Conference award the following individual honors at the end of each football season. In addition, the ''Chicago Tribune'' awards the Chicago Tribune Silver Football to the most valuable football player of the confe ...

in 2022.

High school career

LaPorta attended Highland High School in

Highland, Illinois Highland is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 9,991 at the 2020 census. Highland began as a Swiss settlement and derived its name from later German immigrants. Highland is a sister city of Sursee in Switzer ...

. He played wide receiver and

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

in high school. During his career he had 3,793 receiving yards and 50

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Americ ...

. LaPorta committed to the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...

to play college football.

College career

As a true freshman at Iowa in 2019, LaPorta played in 12 games with two starts and had 15 receptions for 188 yards. As a sophomore in 2020, he started five of eight games, recording 27 receptions for 271 yards and one touchdown. He returned to Iowa as a starter in 2021, and hauled in 53 passes for 670 yards and 3 touchdowns.

References

External links

Iowa profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:LaPorta, Sam 2001 births Living people American football tight ends Iowa Hawkeyes football players People from Highland, Illinois Players of American football from Illinois