Valor Christian lineman Alec Ruth, who will sign with Kansas State on National Signing Day, is part of a growing crop of Division I football signees in Colorado. Valor Christian will have five players sign with DI programs.
File photo by Paul DiSalvo
Wins and championships are nice – and the
Valor Christian (Highlands Ranch) football program has plenty of each – but the thing that head coach Rod Sherman takes the most pride in is how many Eagles have moved on to play at the next level.
"I'll be honest, I don't think there's any comparison as to what's the better deal," said Sherman, who may have upwards of a dozen players sign with colleges during Wednesday's National Signing Day. "It's by far the coolest thing to watch and see how your players future gets set."
Valor Christian has five players expected to sign with Division I schools, including player of the year
Christian McCaffrey, who will sign with Stanford. Included on that list are linemen
Alec Ruth (Kansas State),
Isaiah Holland (Army) and
Ryan Cummings (Wyoming) and defensive back
Marcus Wilson (Colorado State).
It promises to be a banner crop of Colorado football athletes signing with Division I universities, as more than 35 players have made commitments to FBS or FCS schools heading into Signing Day.
Colorado college signings list"From what I understand this state used to be just real big on linemen," said Sherman, who had eight Valor Christian alumni play in bowl games last season. "That's really grown now. There's a lot of skill-position kids being signed."
While there are plenty of different avenues for players from Valor Christian to be seen by recruiters – that's what five consecutive state championships and a couple of showcase games on ESPN will do for you – other players had to take more unconventional routes.
Windsor has two players – offensive lineman
Trenton Noller and defensive end
Zach Peck – who are headed to Navy thanks in part to YouTube.
Trenton Noller (76), Windsor.
File photo by Lance Wendt
Because the Wizards run the same triple-option offensive scheme as the Midshipmen, Windsor coach Chris Jones attends a coaches clinic at the Naval Academy every spring. At this past one, a coach recognized Jones and asked him if he had any players worth taking a look at.
"I gave him the kid's names, and they went under the stadium on a computer and looked them up on YouTube," Jones said. "And then all of a sudden I had a couple of coaches talking to me and they were saying, ‘Hey, we like that kid.' Then they came out in the spring and really fell in love with those two."
Playing at a 1A school,
Wiggins offensive lineman
Dalton Risner had to put in a lot of work to get his name out to recruiters. He attended more than a dozen summer camps before his junior year, trying to turn the heads of recruiters. When that didn't work, he hit the phone and the computer, trying to sell himself to anyone who would listen.
"I would send out literally 60 emails a week, and I would personalize every one of them," Risner said before the start of the season. "And I would make phone calls, two or three times a week. When I would finally get a hold of someone, I would spend 30 to 45 minutes talking to the coaches."
That work paid off, as Risner will sign with Kansas State and coach Bill Snyder on Wednesday.
Valor Christian's Sherman said that while the 2014 class of players from Colorado is exceptional, all of this attention they are receiving will only help other players in the state get recruited in the future. In fact, the Eagles already have a player – cornerback
Eric Lee Jr.. – make a verbal commitment to Nebraska for the 2015 season.
"In some ways it just starts snowballing with recruiting," Sherman said. "I know that's been the case for us. Coaches would be here to watch seniors, and then all of a sudden they'd see juniors or sophomores. So, that culture kind of gets imbedded.
"In the seven years that I've lived here, I've just seen the quality of football grow."
