Darius West
It is 79 miles from Lima Stadium to Ohio Stadium in Columbus. One hundred and 29 miles to Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind. and 139 miles to Michigan State in East Lansing.
For 99 percent of high school football players, it might as well be a million miles for the chance to play at the Division I collegiate level.
For Darius West, a junior at Lima Central Catholic and one of the other 1 percent, those places are closer to reality after a summer of outstanding performances at various college camps (Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State to name a few) for high school underclassmen.
?My dad (Doug West) played for Ricky Vaughn at Lima Senior and Vaughn now lives in Columbus and knows William Hayes,? West said. ?Hayes helped me get invitations through rivals.com.?
Colleges look for size, speed, strength, leaping ability, and grades to assess a player and West measures up extremely well in all those areas. He is 6-foot tall, weighs in at 190 pounds, runs a 4.45 40-yard dash, bench presses 275 pounds, has a 34-inch vertical leap. He also sports a 2.9 grade point average and is being recruited as a defensive back.
Colleges are not allowed to contact a player until the beginning of their junior year, so all contacts regarding West must be funneled through LCC head coach Jerry Cooper.
?They (recruiters) already know about the physical attributes of a player,? Cooper said. ?They want to verify grades, attitude, and character.?
West, who has grown three inches and gained 15 pounds since his freshman year, has started a file folder to keep track of school contacts and his level of interest in each school.
?I look at the coaching staff, the school history, the atmosphere, and the academics,? West said. ?I would like to major in business and sports management.?
But with two years of high school in front of him, West knows there are certain things he must do before he makes the big commitment.
?It has to be school, then practice, then homework, and finally the recruiting,? West said of where his priorities lie.
Having just been through the big-time recruiting process with quarterback Ty O?Connor, a freshman at Michigan State, Cooper is able to offer valuable input to West.
?You have to be able to transfer the things that attracted the recruiters in the first place to the playing field,? Cooper said. ?Darius needs to continue to work on his grades and play well his junior year.?
Cooper also talked about how the whole process has changed in recent years.
?Five years ago the colleges used to recruit during your senior season,? Cooper said. ?Now they are recruiting sophomores and juniors and the big time programs are already recruiting for the class of 2014.?
Every Big Ten school except Iowa has expressed interest in West. In addition, he has heard from Notre Dame, Arkansas, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina State among others.
While the excitement level is quite high, West is not in a big hurry to make any decisions regarding his college of choice.
?I want to try to commit by the end of my junior year and definitely before my senior year.? West said.
