Area football, soccer stars make commitments official
Franklin's Steven Smothers has had fun with the recruiting process ever since it started, and that continued the week before signing day.
Smothers wore a different college sweatshirt to school each day.
“I just wanted to throw everybody off a little bit, give them something to talk about,” Smothers said with a grin, “but my coaches knew I was going to West Virginia.”
On Wednesday morning, Smothers signed his national letter of intent with West Virginia, joining five of his teammates — Kareem Felder (Ohio State), Damon Hazelton (Ball State), Murad Hussain (Albany), Eric Ostrow (Shepherd) and Aman Speed (West Virginia Wesleyan) — for a signing ceremony in the Franklin gym.
For Smothers, getting the chance to play major college football was a “dream I had since I was little.”
Despite all the sweatshirts, he was fully committed to the Mountaineers. A good friend of former West Virginia star Tavon Austin, who now plays with the Los Angeles Rams, Smothers, dubbed Tavon 2.0, would like to follow the same path as Austin, with whom he shares a godfather. At 5 feet 10 and 165 pounds, he has similar size and looks up to Austin's example.
While Smothers tried to keep everyone in suspense, signing day went as expected around the area, with the few flip-flops from one school to another having taken place before signing day.
One of those became official at Dunbar on Wednesday morning.
Since November, Poets wide receiver Dae'lun Darien had his heart set on playing at Temple. After visiting the campus, he liked what he saw and committed.
His parents, however, wanted their son to be sure. They wanted him to see at least one other program, so he had something to compare with Temple, so last weekend Darien took an official visit to Penn State.
“They told me to make the decision that was best for me, but they wanted me to take the visit,” he said. “All I really wanted to do was go to Temple, but to make my parents happy, I took the visit and I loved it. I loved everything about it.”
The 6-foot-4 Darien announced the decision Monday morning on Twitter and signed a letter of intent at a ceremony at the school Wednesday.
Such ceremonies were going on throughout the metro area. Appropriately, the biggest one took place at Gilman, which finished the season ranked No. 1 in the metro area and the state.
Gilman honored 11 players, 10 of whom are heading to Division I.
Leading the way, Defensive Player of the Year Ellison Jordan rocked a Penn State bow tie as he joined his teammates on stage at the Gilman auditorium to celebrate signing with the Nittany Lions.
Devery Hamilton, a 6-7 All-Metro offensive lineman, signed with Stanford just after 7 a.m. after flipping from Michigan last week, but put pen to paper again during the ceremony.
“It's just exciting writing your name on that letter and it's like a great ending to a great high school story,” he said. “I'm excited and relieved, definitely, that this process is finally over.”
Four other Gilman offensive linemen were heading to play in college: All-Metro tackle Stephen Spanellis, who signed with Michigan; Stewart Keehner, who signed with Georgetown; Wes Mehl, who is headed to Navy; and James Lotz, who will play for Division III Franklin and Marshall.
Also signing from Gilman were Antonio Dupree (UTEP), Dorian Maddox (Stanford), Shamar Shanks (Monmouth) and Korey Stevens (Villanova). John Fitzgerald is headed to Cornell.
At McDonogh, All-Metro safety Eric Burrell signed with Wisconsin, rejecting a late offer from Maryland.
Burrell and teammate Alton Lacks, who signed with Sacred Heart, were surrounded by Eagles soccer players, who also signed their letters of intent Wednesday, four with the mighty Atlantic Coast Conference.
Of the boys, All-Metro central defenders Mike DeShields (Wake Forest) and Cale Thorne (Clemson) chose to head south. Of the girls, All-Metro Player of the Year Kia Rankin signed with North Carolina State and Bridgette Andrzejewski, the 2014 All-Metro Player of the Year and a four-time All Metro pick, heads to North Carolina.
Both McDonogh teams went unbeaten and were ranked No. 1 wire to wire in The Baltimore Sun's Top 15 polls in winning their respective league championships.
In boys soccer, Archbishop Curley has regularly sent some of its finest talent to UMBC and coach Pete Caringi. Senior forward Tre Pulliam is the latest.
The All-Metro Player of the Year scored 29 goals and added 11 assists this season to end a stellar four-year career as the Friars' second all-time leading scorer to 1997 graduate Giuliano Celenza. Celenza went on to play two seasons at UMBC and led the Retrievers to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 1999.
In 2014, Curley graduate Oumar Ballo led the Retrievers to the NCAA College Cup — soccer's version of the Final Four — and was drafted by Major League Soccer.
“I heard there's a lot of players that went to UMBC and a lot of them did well. As far as Oumar, he got signed [by MLS] and stuff and that gives me motivation,” Pulliam said. “UMBC is like a family, a brotherhood, and it reminds me so much of Curley. And they compete against anybody, no matter who it is. I liked what I saw and that's why I chose them.”
The only football player from a metro-area high school who signed with Maryland was South Carroll's Brian Plummer.
Plummer had trouble sleeping Tuesday night. But he got up early and at 7:01 a.m. on Wednesday, the offensive lineman officially joined the Terps. His letter of intent was the first to reach coach DJ Durkin, just one minute after the signing period began.
“I woke up and I was full of energy and I was just ready to send it in,” said Plummer, a 6-7, 300-pound tackle. “All day when I had breaks in class, I was on Twitter looking at all the people that signed. It was really getting me excited, seeing all my future teammates and seeing how enthusiastic the coaches are about next year. It really gets me excited to get on campus.”
John Carroll quarterback Kurt Rawlings, the All-Metro Offensive Player of the Year, is headed to Yale.
Along with Gilman's Fitzgerald, Boys' Latin's Davy Lizana is headed to Cornell. Mount Saint Joseph's Connor Jangro is going to Penn and Archbishop Spalding's David Harding is headed to Princeton, where he will also play baseball.
Gilman's Mehl will be joined at Navy by Broadneck's Emmett Davis. Meade's Will Huff is headed to West Point. Calvert Hall's Ben Hoffner will play at Air Force.
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