09-08-2006, 07:25 AM
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Head Coach
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 10,857
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Total Points: 500,214.73
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Howard High defensive end Devon Still, the state's top football recruit, has had offers from at least 27 Division I-A schools.
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Howard High senior playing another game
Still has big decisions to make after drawing offers from top schools
By BUDDY HURLOCK, The News Journal
Posted Friday, September 8, 2006
Joe Paterno probably still isn't used to it, but when the legendary Penn State football coach watches video of high school recruits, it's not like it used to be.
More and more, highlight videos are computer files sent through e-mail instead of cassettes stuffed in envelopes, said Howard High coach Dan Ritter, who has the state's top football recruit in defensive end Devon Still.
Also, the videos don't just show one play after another anymore.
"This is how we do ... We make a move ..."
Complete with soundtracks by 50 Cent and other popular artists, polished highlight videos are part of the recruiting game today.
"First, you have to be good," Ritter said about catching the attention of college football coaches. "But second is how you sell yourself."
Still has been selling well. Ritter said the 6-foot-5 1/2, 260-pound senior has offers from at least 27 Division I-A programs, including Miami, Ohio State and Penn State.
Still is restricted to five official recruiting visits, and visits to those three are already scheduled. Ritter said other programs that have offered Still scholarships include Auburn, Georgia, Florida State, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
The choice won't be easy. Still does not expect to make a decision until very close to national signing day on Feb. 7, if not on that day itself. Ritter said he already has been contacted by ESPN to tape or broadcast Still's announcement. But it is more that football that weighs heavily on Still's mind.
"I want to make sure I get a good education," he said, "and make sure I go to a good athletic program."
So while Still has tests and homework to worry about, there's also the football season that starts this weekend. The Wildcats, defending champs in Blue Hen Flight B, open against Tatnall at 7 Saturday night at Baynard Stadium.
It can be a lot to handle.
"It's almost like the NFL these days," University of Delaware coach K.C. Keeler said about recruiting high school players.
Keeler said it comes down to recruits choosing where they fit best, including socially, an important aspect Keeler said is easily overlooked.
"This is not just going somewhere and playing football for 12 weeks, and then going home," Keeler said. "This is going and living somewhere for the next five years of your life. This is going someplace and having your degree from that institution, going there and making friends and finding maybe your future wife, and all of those kinds of things. So when you pick a school, it better be a place where you probably would have gone to anyway, even if you weren't playing football."
Still said he won't be nervous on his visits, since he already met most of the coaches a year ago. There are specific dates when colleges coaches can contact players as juniors. Still said that during that period last year he was answering a string of phone calls each night, and text messaging is the latest way coaches keep their program on the minds of recruits. The NCAA is beginning to regulate the number of text messages coaches can send.
Still primarily is being recruited at defensive end. Rivals.com rates him No. 10 in the nation at strong side defensive end.
But Still also is receiving scholarship offers to be an offensive tackle, including one from Oklahoma. Scouts Inc., the recruiting service used by the ESPN Web site, ranks Still as the No. 11 offensive tackle in the nation.
"He wants to play defense," Ritter said. "But Rutgers and West Virginia have gone as far to say that he could be a top college prospect [at offensive tackle]."
Drawing the attention of more than two dozen colleges comes from more than mailing out seven-minute videos. In February, Still and Ritter attended a three-day coaching convention in Baltimore.
"Down there, I passed out a couple highlight tapes," Ritter said. "That was on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday I received a phone call from Marshall. Marshall was the first one to offer, and from then it just took off."
Still's solid showing during the offseason also improved his stock. Getting your name out there gets you invited to the best combines -- short training camps used to test recruits' potential. After attending a combine in northern New Jersey in the spring, Ritter said Still picked up about 10 more scholarship offers the next two days.
The star recruit is handling it all just fine.
"I think at times it's a little overwhelming for him," Ritter said. "But overall he's doing very well."
Contact Buddy Hurlock at bhurlock@delawareonline.com.
DEVON STILL
CLASS: Senior
FAVORITE NFL TEAM: Pittsburgh Steelers
FAVORITE NFL PLAYER: Steelers LB Joey Porter
RIVALS.COM: 5.9 rating (out of 6.1), No. 10 strong-side DE in nation, 40-yard time: 4.9 seconds
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