Summit Christian (West Palm Beach) is a small private school not known for its football prowess, and has won only one of its first four games this season. However, one player for the Saints is beginning to attract the attention of a few major Division I colleges.
Jean Prophete, a senior at Summit, has been a standout player for the Saints' highly successful boys basketball team the past three years, and last season he earned small schools Player of the Year honors from two South Florida newspapers. Back in August, Prophete was encouraged by Bill Caesar, the new football coach at the school, to join the football team even though Prophete had not played the sport since his freshman year.
Prophete accepted the invitation and has been a dominating force for the Saints. The 6-foot-5, 255-pound tight end has caught five touchdown passes and has almost 400 receiving yards in four games, including a 237-yard performance in the Saints' season opener despite double-team and sometimes triple-team coverage by opposing defenses.
Miami, Virginia Tech and Ohio State are among the college programs that have shown interest in Prophete. Caesar told the Palm Beach Post that Miami has added Prophete to its recruit guest list for the Hurricanes' ACC showdown against rival Florida State this Saturday.
It's another example that regardless what school you attend and play for, if you're good, college recruiters will discover you.
Dwyer High's Nick O'Leary.
Photo by Scott Seighman
Nationally ranked
Dwyer (Palm Beach Gardens), ranked No. 14 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 presented by the Army National Guard, rolled to its third consecutive victory last Friday night with a 41-15 win against Atlantic (Delray Beach). Highly touted tight end
Nick O'Leary, the grandson of golfing legend Jack Nicklaus, had an all-around outstanding performance in his first game back in action after serving a state association-mandated two-game suspension for his actions following Dwyer's controversial season-opening loss to Glenville (Ohio) on national television.
O'Leary, who is widely considered the nation's top-rated prospect at tight end, caught a touchdown pass, ran for a score and even threw a touchdown pass out of the Wildcat formation. He also had two booming punts of 40-plus yards and played several downs on defense. O'Leary has not made any verbal commitment yet, but has narrowed his top five to Alabama, Florida State, Georgia, Miami and North Carolina.
3. Milestone victory for St. Thomas Aquinas coach: George Smith has built
St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale) into a state and national powerhouse during his 34 years at the helm for the Raiders, winning five state championships and a consensus national title two years ago. Last Friday night, Aquinas, ranked No. 4 in the Xcellent 25, defeated Camden County (Ga.) 42-28 in front of a capacity home crowd, giving Smith his 350th career win in a game that was televised nationally on ESPNU.
Camden County lost for the first time this season and had beaten nationally ranked Miami Central last month. Smith and the Raiders are now 6-0 in nationally televised games over the past three seasons, with five of those victories coming against highly touted out-of-state opponents. "The record is great because a lot of great kids were part of it and for our coaches who have hung in there over the years," Smith told the Miami Herald after the game.
4. Walsh resurrecting program at Cardinal Newman: Steve Walsh knows all about winning. He was 23-1 in two seasons as the starting quarterback for the Miami Hurricanes and led them to the national title in 1987. So it should come as little surprise, perhaps, that Walsh's
Cardinal Newman (West Palm Beach) football team is 5-0, the Crusaders' best start in recent memory.
Walsh, who is in his second year at the helm and in his first head coaching job, appears to be turning around a proud program at Newman after several mediocre seasons in which the Crusaders hung around the .500 mark or worse. Things didn't look much better last season in Walsh's first year as a head coach when Newman finished 3-7. Walsh admits that he didn't forsee a 5-0 start, nor is he predicting a district title or playoff berth quite yet, but the Crusaders certainly are playing better than many might have expected when the season began.
The Crusaders' signature win was two weekends ago when they defeated District 7-2B rival and state power Pahokee in front of almost a hundred former players and former legendary coach Sam Budnyk who were on hand for the game as part of the program's 50-year celebration. That 14-7 victory for Newman sent a message to the rest of the district that the Crusaders have a shot at winning the district title. Last week, Newman defeated Pine Crest (Fort Lauderdale) 28-20 behind an outstanding performance by Travis Rudolph, who had 161 receiving yards and two touchdowns, and quarterback Brett Benes, who passed for 229 yards.
5. Dramatic turnaround at Hallandale: Who could have seen this coming?
Hallandale, winless last season, is 4-1 and coming off a huge 30-28 upset victory last week against defending Class 6A state champion Miramar. Hallandale stunned the defending champs by racing to a 24-0 lead and holding on for the victory that dropped Miramar to 2-2. "We got a bulls-eye (on our backs) as the defending state champs and we can't wait until the third or fourth quarter to come out and play football," Miramar coach Damon Cogdell told the Miami Herald.
TOP PERFORMERS* St. Thomas Aquinas quarterback
Jacob Rudock passed for a school-record 333 yards and four touchdowns in the Raiders' 42-28 win against previously unbeaten Camden County (Ga.). The previous single-game passing record was held by Dan Shula (311 yards), a grandson of retired Hall of Fame NFL coach Don Shula.
* Lauren Driscoll of
American Heritage (Plantation) and Carlos Omana of
Belen Jesuit (Miami) each won three gold medals and were named the outstanding female and male performers, respectively, at the prestigious Woodson Invitational swim meet in Fort Lauderdale.
*
Javan Shashaty passed for 262 yards, moving the
Calvary Christian Academy (Fort Lauderdale) quarterback within 27 yards of the Broward County career passing record.
*
Doug Cooke of
University (Fort Lauderdale) passed for 317 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 45 yards to lead his team to a 28-21 win against Everglades.
* Traveon Henry of
Pine Crest (Fort Lauderdale) rushed for 237 yards and three touchdowns in a 28-20 loss to Cardinal Newman (West Palm Beach).
THIS WEEK'S TOP MATCHUPS IN SOUTH FLORIDA* The most anticipated game matches two Miami-Dade County powers when unbeaten
Northwestern (Miami) clashes with
Central (Miami) (4-1) Friday night at Florida International University's stadium.
* Two unbeaten district rivals from neighboring Broward and Palm Beach counties meet Friday night when University plays host to Cardinal Newman, both with 5-0 records and first place in the district on the line.
RECRUITING NEWSHighly touted safety
Wayne Lyons of
Dillard (Fort Lauderdale) sustained an injury to his left knee last week and likely will miss the remainder of the regular season after an MRI showed his has a slight medial collateral ligament (MCL) tear that will sideline him for 4-6 weeks. Lyons has made official recruiting visits to Notre Dame and UCLA and is scheduled to visit Nebraska the last weekend of October.
DORSEY'S DIGS Officially, it's autumn according to the calendar, but of course it's still warm in south Florida. Thankfully, we've had no hurricanes threaten us so far (keeping fingers crossed). And temperatures have dipped slightly — instead of 90 degrees, daytime highs are mostly in the low-to-mid-80s this week — and some areas might even see low temps in the upper 60s this weekend. Soon, the state's mandated water breaks at the midway point of every quarter will end. In another month, it might actually FEEL like football season!
Steve Dorsey, who covers the South Florida football scene for MaxPreps.com, is a freelance writer based in West Palm Beach. He has covered the South Florida high school sports scene for the past 29 years. He also is a contributing writer for American Football Monthly and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
