MaxWire National Blog

On Wednesday, 247Sports released its Top 247 recruits for the Class of 2015, and the list had many familiar names.

The nation's No. 1 recruit, Canton Kaumatule, was a MaxPreps Sophomore All-American in 2015 after earning similar honors as a freshman in 2011.

Kaumatule joins 33 other Sophomore All-Americans (out of 46 chosen) on 247Sports' list.

Other Sophomore All-Americans to earn five-star honors include Baker County (Glen St. Mary, Fla.) defensive lineman Cece Jefferson, Bluffton (S.C.) defensive lineman Shameik Blackshear and East Lake (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) athlete George Campbell.

In a deep year for quarterbacks, the only Sophomore All-American signal callers to make the list were Folsom (Calif.) standout Jake Browning and Arkansas sensation Ty Storey.

National Sophomore of the Year Austin Kafentzis and Florida State commit De'Andre Johnson, both first team All-American selections, failed to crack the initial 2015 list.

Here's the full 247Sports Top 247 for 2015.

Star Class of 2014 wing Theo Pinson of Wesleyan Christian Academy (High Point, N.C.) announced Wednesday he will play his college ball for the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Pinson, a 6-foot-5, 180-pounder tabbed the No. 10 overall prospect in 247Sports.com's Class of 2014 player rankings, made the announcement shortly after noon local time at Wesleyan Christian.

The Tar Heels also have commitments from two other highly-touted rising senior prospects in point guard Joel Berry of Lake Highland Prep (Orlando, Fla.) and 6-7 sharpshooter Justin Jackson of HCYA (Houston).

Pinson has a wealth of high-level experience. He took the floor as a middle schooler and began creating a buzz with a North Carolina-based club team that featured Quincy Miller, Deuce Bello and J.T. Terrell.

He helped the United States capture gold in Mexico at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship in 2011, averaging 11.5 points per game on a team that also featured Aaron Gordon, Jabari Parker and Jahlil Okafor.

Pinson's latest success came as a junior at Wesleyan, where he teamed with freshman phenom Harry Giles to lead the Trojans to the NCISAA Class 3A state title. Wesleyan finished the season ranked No. 9 nationally in MaxPreps.com's Academy Top 10.

The five-star prospect picked UNC over Duke and Indiana among others.

After a stormy departure last fall at Milton High School, one of the most successful coaches in Georgia basketball history will return to the bench in 2013-14.

David Boyd, who has won over 600 games and six state titles, was named head coach at Excel Christian Academy (Cartersville, Ga.) on Monday.

Boyd has led four different Peach State schools to titles, but is best known for his recent run at Milton. He is fully retired from Georgia's public schools system but will also teach two English classes at Excel and possibly weight training.

"It would be a lot easier for me to sit back and enjoy the success my teams and players have had, but I felt like I had more to give," Boyd told MaxPreps by phone Tuesday morning.

Under Boyd's tutelage, Milton won state crowns in 2010 and 2012 and became one of the elite public school programs in the country. The Eagles were ranked in the top 15 nationally to finish the season by MaxPreps each year from 2010 to 2012.

The standouts from that run include Evan Nolte (Virginia), Dai-Jon Parker (Vanderbilt), Julian Royal (Georgia Tech, George Mason) and Shannon Scott (Ohio State).

But things ended on a sour note for Boyd at Milton as allegations of undue influence (recruiting) led to his ouster last September. He may have been a victim of his own success to some extent as players began gravitating toward a program that played a national schedule, including appearances at prestigious events like the City of Palms Classic, Beach Ball Classic and Spalding Hoophall Classic.

Boyd won't be starting from scratch at Excel Christian Academy. Under former Marlins minor leaguer and Kennesaw State basketball player Jon-Michael Nickerson, the program went 26-3 last season and reached the Class A quarterfinals.

"It's a situation I'm very comfortable with," Boyd said. "I'm excited about teaching and coaching and making a difference, as well as making a difference in a young person's spiritual life. That's something that's very important to me."

Nickerson left to take a position under Josh Pastner at the University of Memphis.

The new position at Excel isn't the only change in Boyd's life. The veteran coach will also marry fiancee Geniese in June.

One race, three national records.

Technically, there's only one national record, but two others broke the previous national mark as well.

So it was at the North Coast Section swim championships Saturday in Northern California.

Campolindo (Moraga) senior and USC-bound Steven Stumph finished off an electric meet by winning the 100-yard breaststroke in 53.39 seconds. He was followed by Charlie Wiser (53.57), of Miramonte (Orinda), and Nick Silverthorn (53.61), of Granada (Livermore).

All were under the previous mark of 53.67 set by six-time Olympic medalist Brendan Hansen, who graduated from Haverford (Pa.). Stumph is the No. 20 overall recruit in the country according to collegeswimming.com.

"I knew both Nick and Charlie were going to push me to do my best, and they definitely did," Stumph told Stephanie Hammon of the Contra Costa Times. "I couldn't have asked for a better race. ... It was amazing all the positive energy coming from the crowd, the announcers, and my teammates."

Said Campolindo coach Ron Heidary: "I think the consensus from everybody I talked to was that was the most extraordinary heats of swimming that anybody has ever seen."

It was the only national record set at the meet at Concord Community Pool. The 400 free relay team from Carondelet (Concord) broke the girls national mark by going 3:20.42, breaking the national mark of 3:21.63 set by Germantown Academy (Fort Washington, Pa.) earlier this season.

The team of Chelsea Chenault, Natalie Amberg, Madelyn Murphy and Madison White broke the previous mark by more than a second.

Chenault, an Olympic Trials finalist last summer and No. 8 recruit in the country, also won the 200 and 500 freestyle and set three NCS records. Her 49.27 leadoff leg also set the 100 freestyle section record. She's also headed to USC.

The poor high school gents at Archbishop Carroll (Miami).

Imagine trying to be the big man on campus – or at the very least impressing your date at senior ball. You buy the fancy clothes and dinner, score a cool ride to pick up your date, supply a luscious bouquet of flowers or a sweet corsage.

The he shows up.

The Heat is on.

He is Heat starting guard and future Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, whose specialty is stealing the ball for breakaway dunks and who on Friday stole the show by surprising Carroll senior Nicole Muxo at the senior prom on Friday.

Muxo made a sweet YouTube video and asked Wade months ago to be her date and Wade was gentlemanly enough to decline only because the Heat are in the middle of defending their NBA title.

However, with Friday off thanks to Miami's quick disposal of the Chicago Bulls, Wade surprised Ms. Muxo and the entire Carroll class by attending the dance at La Jolla Ballroom in Coral Gables. For good measure, he presented her roses.

As if his presence wasn't enough.

According to the Miami Herald, Wade actually called Muxo moments before walking into the prom to tell her to have a good night. He was right outside. He then walked in for just an extra surprise factor.

Wade danced with Muxo and stayed almost an hour. Ms. Muxo did have a "legitimate" date Laurent Chaumin who good-naturedly told the Herald: "At least we both know how to dress."

Wade said "I'm the third wheel. I'm like both their dates," then later Tweeted: "I had a blast at Prom. Never be 2 scared to ask."

I was able to spend time with Wade at a Gatorade Replay event in Chicago two years ago and found him down to earth and genuine and fun. This just backs up all those notions.