ENGLEWOOD — Athletes all across the Miami Valley are signing with their colleges where they’ll continue their careers.
Normally National Signing Day carries with it celebrations, hugs, and congratulations. Instead this year most are only surrounded by family and then some friends at a distance.
It caps a recruiting process that was unlike any other in recent history.
“The word that would describe it mostly is frustrating,” Northmont senior Cade Rice said.
“The dead periods were not easy to deal with.”
Rice was trying to gain more respect and attention from recruiters and coaches after playing the first three years of his career at Greenon, being told that the level of competition was a significant role in him being under recruited by some schools.
High School students weren’t able to visit campuses like in years past so for some like Rice, they committed and signed with a school that they were never able to properly visit.
Even though it’s not the end to the recruiting process that seniors would have written, it’s still extremely special.
“It means a lot,” Northmont senior Markus Allen said. “Just personally, just from the life I’ve had and what I’ve been through I’ve come a long way. I know the people watching down on me I know they’d be proud of me.”
“It’s really a dream come true,” Rice said. “I pretty much dreamt about this since I began playing football to have college paid for by football.”
While a lot has changed and is different throughout recruiting and national signing day one thing endures. The reasons that students pick one school over another to continue their athletic careers.
“It was just a family vibe,” Allen said about signing to play wide receiver for Wisconsin. “The coaches they showed instant love, they respected me a lot and they made it known I was one of the top recruits that they wanted. That means a big role in the recruiting process.”
“Stacking up the pros and cons, the cons are very limited,” Rice said about signing to play quarterback at South Dakota State. “Really the only [con] is I’d like to be a little closer but that isn’t the deciding factor for me. Everything else falls right in line with what I’ve been looking for in a school. A really good blend of academics and football.”
For Rice he’s heading to South Dakota that’s seen a headline grabbing surge in COVID-19 cases in the last couple of months.
“I wasn’t really worried about that to be honest. I do a pretty good job distancing myself.”
The dead periods continue until April and South Dakota State is actually playing its season in the spring. Rice said he plans on going to see at least one game when they play.
Northmont senior Rod Moore also signed on Wednesday to continue his football career at Michigan. He will play safety and join a defense that includes fellow Thunderbolt Gabe Newburg who graduated from Northmont in 2019. Those 3 as well as other seniors that have signed to continue their careers simply must wait to see when they’ll be able to get on campus but they’ll be able to enroll in the early summer of 2021.
Cox Media Group
