DE Cumbie is more than just football

Morris (Ill.) junior defensive end prospect Jamie Cumbie (6-foot-7, 255 pounds) is definitely more than just a football player. Cumbie is also a standout baseball player for the Redskins this spring, who are off to a 6-1 overall record. Look for Cumbie to devote time this spring and summer towards getting ready for football as well as focusing on baseball.

"From a football recruiting standpoint things are still about the same," Cumbie said. "I still have offers from Clemson, Notre Dame, Illinois, Northwestern and Purdue. I've been seeing more and more hand-written mail almost daily from several schools. Both Iowa and Tennessee have been sending me more and more hand-written letters over the last few weeks."

Cumbie is also planning to keep his spring football events to a bare minimum because of his other sport and passion, namely baseball.

"Baseball is definitely something that has a lot of my focus and attention now. We're 6-1 so far on the season, and with our schedule this spring it's going to be very hard for me to check out any football events. I've gotten a lot of invitations to several spring practices and spring games, but baseball is really important to me and I won't miss games because it's not fair to my team nor to myself. I have passion for both football and baseball no question about it."

Cumbie is also planning to put plenty of focus this summer on both sports.

"I know that I'm going to be really busy this summer getting ready for my senior season of football as well as going to several tryout camps and events for baseball. I'm just going to have to really juggle things this summer from a time standpoint, but I really want to see how far I can go with baseball."

"I've gotten some interest from scouts for baseball, and I also know that this spring as well as this summer are going to be really important from a baseball standpoint. As far as being a potential prospect in baseball, my feeling has always been that whatever happens, happens. I just want to give baseball my best shot and the next 3-4 months are really important."

In the meantime, Cumbie is excited to have a new football coach in George Dergo. Dergo, the father of Morris junior running back prospect John Dergo was recently named as the new head football coach at Morris.

"Coach (George) Dergo will do a really good job. He's a Morris guy and I know how much the tradition at Morris means to him. I'm excited about getting to play for Coach Dergo and so is the rest of the team. Now it's up to us as players to get to work and to get ready for our senior season. I'm excited about Coach Dergo getting hired for the job."