Advertisement
football Edit

Cedar Hill overflowing with talent

Cedar Hill (Texas) High School has had top prospects before. So when head coach Joey McGuire says his 2007 class is his best yet, it's saying something.
While four of his players have offers already, McGuire says that ten is not an unrealistic number of guys that will sign scholarships on Signing Day. So far wide receiver William Cole leads the way with four scholarships, but fellow pass-catcher Romie Blaylock, linebacker Chris Francis, and offensive tackle John Jones are not far behind.
Advertisement
"These guys, they're just so much fun to be around and I'm telling you, this is the best group as a whole I've had here," McGuire said. "We're doing a lot of team-building stuff right now and these kids are fired up, taking right to it, and giving it 100 percent every time."
Cole recently picked up a Texas A&M offer to go along with Baylor, Kansas, and Oklahoma State. The 5-foot-11, 164-pound speedster and his coach are not expecting his offer collection to just stop there.
His skills on the basketball court make him even more intriguing to certain programs.
"He really wants to do both sports," McGuire said about Cole. "We had a basketball coach from Texas A&M say that athletically, he can really do whatever he wants. He's real excited and he's putting out a whole new level of work ethic right now. Not only that, but he's stepping up and becoming the leader that we all knew he was going to be."
Fellow receiver Blaylock recently picked up an offer Kansas State to go along with Houston and Baylor. McGuire says that he brings that same athleticism to his offense.
"He ran a 4.3-second 40-yard dash for us just the other week," McGuire said. "So, Romie is fast. He's just something to be around. Here is this kid with all of this talent, but he keeps everybody on their toes and is always smiling."
Outside linebacker Francis was expected to be good. Considering the bloodlines from his father, James Francis who was a star at Baylor and in the NFL, it hasn't been surprising to see his success.
A lesser surprise was that the first offer came from his father's alma mater. The hard working young man has been something special for McGuire to watch.
"Chris just qualified for the state power lifting meet, I mean this kid just squatted 525 pounds so he's a strong, strong kid," McGuire said. "It's just tough for these guys like Chris with all of these events to get to junior days and all of that."
Offensive tackle Jones is a 6-foot-5, 280-pound rising prospect with one offer from Baylor and schools like Florida, Kansas State, Miami, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech with high interest.
His coach doesn't expect Baylor to be the only team on the table with an offer.
"I think that his first offer will be one of many," McGuire said. "At the same time, coach Wesley McGriff does a great job recruiting this area for Baylor. They've got a great chance, but there will be a lot of schools in on John."
After Hurricane Katrina, Cedar Hill welcomed another big offensive lineman to the group. The 6-foot-6, 280-pound Darrion Weems lived in New Orleans and then fled to California for his junior season.
Now his family is in Texas and Weems joins the talented group from Cedar Hill.
"He played his football in Louisiana and California, so Texas is next on his list," McGuire said. "He's really a great kid and I talked to Oregon that already knew about him when he was in California. When LSU called about Cole, they knew that he was from New Orleans, so they're interested too."
It's pretty obvious that McGuire is not shy on talent for the 2007 class. The spring football and fall season should be quite interesting with all of these highly recruited players.
"It's just four right now with offers, but between eight to ten players could sign on Signing Day," McGuire said. "I'm telling you, this is one very strong group of players."
Advertisement