Childs Has Local Leader

A player who has been one of the state's top receivers since his sophomore season is Los Alamitos' (Calif.) Jeremy Childs. Griffin coaches have been telling us for two years that Childs could be the best receiver the school has ever had which is saying something when you consider some of the players Los Al has had catching the ball over the years.

"He'll be better than everyone we've had here at the position," Griffin assistant coach Barry Sherr said. "Tony Hartley (Oregon), Keenan Howry (Oregon) and Stanly Guyness (USC) were all very good but Jeremy is just a better all around player. You really have to watch him every day in practice to understand just how good he is. He can do it all on the field, he's just a great player."

Childs earned All-State Underclass honors as a sophomore as well as Student Sports Sophomore All-American honors. The receiver had a solid junior season as well although we actually thought he was more dominant as a sophomore. Still he caught 57 balls for 758 yards and six touchdowns to earn 2nd team All-State Underclass honors.

At 6-0, 180 pounds, Childs is bigger than Howry but reminds us of the former Duck star in terms of his ability to get open and catch everything thrown no matter where it is. He doesn't have blazing speed but is very quick off the line and is also explosive coming in and out of his breaks which is where he's able to really separate from defenders.

Childs attended the recent Nike combine at USC and clocked a 4.59 in the 40, 4.22 in the shuttle and jumped 29 inches in the vertical.

"I'm not really happy with my 40 time but at least now I know what I need to work on before the upcoming Nike Camps," Childs said. "I'm planning to go to those speed camps you guys are doing and should be ready to roll by April."

Childs will likely be a national recruit and should have schools from all over the country interested in him. He's currently hearing from all of the Pac 10 plus Michigan, Oklahoma, Colorado and Fresno State.

"UCLA is my top school right now followed by Cal, USC, Florida, Oklahoma and Oregon," Childs said. "It's early though and there's a lot of schools I'm looking at. I'm not ready to narrow things down right now and just want to wait to see who is interested in me and who is going to offer."

Academically, Childs is carrying a 3.3 GPA and will take the SAT later in the year.