Signing day ceremonies from D.C., Maryland and Virginia
The area’s top Class of 2017 recruits sign their National Letters-of-Intent.
Tariq Castro-Fields fumbled between two hats hidden beneath a table in the Riverdale Baptist gymnasium as the crowd giggled at what could have been a moment to draw out suspense.
It wasn’t. After weeks agonizing over his college commitment, Castro-Fields was not acting — he was still deciding.
“[I decided] literally five seconds before I put the hat on,” he said. “It was that close — 50-50.”
His mind seesawed between Penn State and Maryland, and he pulled out a dark blue hat and announced he was headed to State College.
“I was just trusting my gut,” Castro-Fields said. “They’re both great programs that’s on the rise, and I wouldn’t go wrong with either, but I just decided to go to Penn State.”
The four-star prospect’s dilemma epitomized another National Signing Day, the first day graduating high school football players can officially declare allegiance to a college team.
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The 2017 edition saw coaches court the region with a ferocity unseen in previous years. Local powers emerged with the largest haul of prospects.
Maryland hooked six players from the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference, including a pair from DeMatha and another two from St. John's.
Virginia Tech nabbed Lackey linebacker Nathan Proctor, Maryland's top-rated public school player, along with Wilson All-Met wide receiver Sean Savoy among its five area recruits.
Virginia signed Dominion's Tommy Christ, an All-Met lineman; Good Counsel wide receiver Darnell Pratt Jr.; and the region's top kicker, Westfield's Brian Delaney. Lake Braddock All-Met linebacker Lamont Atkins, who will play tailback in college, enrolled early in Charlottesville.
"I really think we can be at the top level with the [Southeastern Conference] schools if we keep our players at home," said DeMatha lineman Marcus Minor, a Maryland signee.
The Terrapins for years have embarked on “The Movement,” a social media-fueled project aimed to keep the area’s top talent inside the state’s borders.
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Local rivals Virginia, Virginia Tech and Penn State have made it a goal to thwart such a strategy. In 2014, Nittany Lions Coach James Franklin called Maryland “in-state” for recruiting purposes.
“I know there are other schools around here, but you might as well shut them down,” he told a Baltimore crowd.
He and other coaches made numerous visits to Maryland in the waning days of recruiting season to lock down commits and try to sway others. It worked for Castro-Fields, a cornerback-linebacker hybrid who didn’t allow a single reception his senior season.
“It’s going to be a battle every time we play Maryland,” the 6-foot-1, 173-pound prospect said. “Both programs are on the rise, so you never know what’s going to happen in the next four years.”
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Pittsburgh made a late push for Lackey's Proctor but struck out against the Hokies. The Panthers won over H.D. Woodson run-stopper Jaylen Twyman, who chose between Pitt and South Carolina.
“They all had my best interest at heart,” Twyman said during a festive ceremony at the Northeast Washington public school that saw Warriors teammate Charles Peeler put pen to paper for Iowa State. Twyman said he decided on Pittsburgh two months ago. “It was like a no-brainer,” he said. But he let the suspense build in the run up to Wednesday by posting a poll on Twitter and soliciting votes between the Panthers and Gamecocks.
All-Met Defensive Player of the Year Chase Young of DeMatha — a defensive end and the area's lone consensus five-star recruit — continued a busy day for Big Ten commitments when he made his pledge to Ohio State official. But the rest of the Stags' afternoon signing ceremony had a decidedly local flavor.
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Minor, a hulking offensive lineman, signed to play for Maryland, on the same field where the Stags claimed their fourth straight WCAC championship in November.
DeMatha's Anthony McFarland had set his heart on Miami, and he even flew to Florida to tell coaches in person. But the dynamic running back, who missed his entire senior season while recovering from a broken fibula, chose Maryland after a final meeting with coaches.
“I was just thinking about staying home and the relationships I had with the Maryland coaches before football,” he said. “I want to build my own legacy.”
National Signing Day 2017: Chase Young, Calvin Ashley, Nathan Proctor among top local recruits expected to sign
The top D.C. area football players will be signing their National Letters-of-Intent this week.
Those high-stakes decisions haunt signees until they put pen to paper and fax their letters of intent, though most players The Washington Post spoke to Wednesday had never worked a fax machine. They relied on coaches or parents to press the buttons.
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Seven members of reigning Virginia 6A state champion Westfield's senior class signed on to play college football. In addition to Delaney, defensive lineman Zach Jewell (Georgetown), wide receiver Ivory Frimpong (Rhode Island), wide receiver Sean Eckert (Army), offensive lineman Edward Quitugua (Clarion), quarterback Rehman Johnson (Sioux Falls) and defensive back Joey Free (Sioux Falls) made verbal commitments official Wednesday afternoon.
Dominion's Vashon McCants, who signed along with four other teammates in Sterling as part of the Titans' most accomplished senior class, asked Towson for a new letter-of-intent to sign after he was upset with his first signature.
In Northwest Washington, St. John's defensive end Kofi Wardlow provided a bit of drama by flipping his commitment from Maryland to Notre Dame, but teammates Kasim Hill, a quarterback, and Cam Spence, a defensive tackle, remained true to the Terrapins.
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Spence, who was Maryland's first verbal commit from the 2017 class, took an official visit to Florida in January but ultimately decided to stick with the Terps.
“Today was really special,” he said. “Just being at home and being a hometown kid and everything we started, it’s just too hard to turn down.”
Eric Goldwein and Dillon Mullan contributed to this report.
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