On her daytime talk show, Ellen DeGeneres talked with a college football player about coming out gay in high school.

Jake Bain, who played football while attending John Burrough's High School in Missouri, came out gay last year to his classmates during a school assembly.

“I had a lot of nerves coming out because at the time, there weren't very many out, openly gay football players,” Bain told DeGeneres.

Bain, who is now playing Division 1 football at Indiana State University, said that he spoke with his coach about his sexuality before committing to the university.

“Even before I committed there, I talked to the coach about my sexuality and that I wanted to be openly gay,” Bain said. “He assured me from the very beginning that I was gonna be accepted by the community at Indiana State and that my teammates were gonna treat me just like anybody else on the team.”

Bain's boyfriend, Hunter Sigmund, who attends the University of North Carolina, was in the audience with his mother. Because NCAA rules do not permit athletes to accept gifts, DeGeneres gave Sigmund a six-night vacation in Fiji.

“So maybe he'll bring you, I don't know,” DeGeneres told Bain.