Lakeville South’s Josh Corcoran has been grooming himself for the big-time football spotlight since at least middle school.

The senior captain will focus this year on bettering the Cougars’ fourth-place South Suburban Conference finish and state tournament miss last year. But there was a time when he wasn’t so team-oriented.

“One of our assistant coaches, Andrew Hilliard, said when [Corcoran] was in eighth-grade math class, he would sit down there … and he was flexing his muscles and looking at them,” coach Larry Thompson said. “He was pretty proud of the way he looked in the eighth grade.”

Four years later, Corcoran has earned the right to be proud. He has committed to play Division I football at Northern Illinois. This season he will be the focal point on defense, offense and special teams — as a linebacker, running back and long snapper for punts. Fellow senior captain Ryan Kretzschmar said Corcoran is “really focused on lifting, working out and football, obviously.” But that energy sometimes surprises his friends off the field.

“One time we were at someone’s house, and we were just kind of play wrestling,” he said.

“Then he just got serious, and he just body slammed me all the way to the ground. That’s when I knew he was good at football.”

Thompson said the 6-foot 3, 220-pound Corcoran is strong, fast and aggressive. Combine that with his work to cut weight and increase his speed in the offseason, and the star becomes a “legitimate powerhouse,” he said.

In prime shape and with his college plans settled, Corcoran is queued to have a memorable senior season, hopefully highlighted by taking back the “One Community, Two Cats’’ trophy from rival Lakeville North and a state tournament berth.

“I don’t need to do any more recruiting trips or anything like that,” Corcoran said. “I can just focus on my senior season and just play.”

MEGAN RYAN