Good Counsel Trio Has Big Plans For JMU Careers

HARRISONBURG – The three of them are planning to elevate James Madison football together.

“We’re going to bring some rings to Harrisonburg,” Good Counsel (Olney, Md.) defensive end Jalen Green said.

Green along with Good Counsel linebacker Julio Ayamel and running back Latrele Palmer are all committed to JMU. The trio will officially become part of the Dukes’ 2019 recruiting class on Wednesday when they sign their Letters of Intent during a ceremony at their school.

“It’s rather unique,” Good Counsel coach Andy Stefanelli said. “I don’t think we’ve ever had that. I can recall having two players go to one school, but never three and never three at that level in terms of all three really being prominent players for us.”

Stefanelli’s program churns out Division I signees each year. Good Counsel alums include Minnesota Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs and Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Kendall Fuller, who played at Maryland and Virginia Tech respectively. And in addition to Ayamel, Green and Palmer inking with JMU in this class, Good Counsel will have one of its players sign with Notre Dame and another with Maryland.

This past fall Good Counsel finished as the 58th best high school team in the country, according to HighSchoolFootballAmerica.com.

“Going into college, I think we’re at an advantage,” Ayamel said. “We’ve had college education at a private school, so we won’t get put off with the workload. Our practices and workouts are run like a college style, so it shouldn’t be too much of a change going from high school to college.”

Green said practices typically last three hours for the Falcons and that Stefanelli still holds traditional two-a-days during training camp.

“Day in and day out you go against the very best line in practice,” Ayamel said. “Basically everybody on our offense is going to go play college ball, so inside the trenches you’re going against top linemen. Everyone on our line is 300-pounds plus and is 6-5, 6-6. We have a five-star, four-star, three-star. Everyone is ranked and everyone is highly recruited, and of course Latrele is the running back, so I’m going against a college-style back.

“And the teams we play week in and week out are ranked teams with St. John’s (D.C.), Gonzaga (D.C.), DeMatha (Md.), Marietta (Ga.), and we scrimmaged St. Francis (Md.). It’s just top, high-end teams, so you’re really getting that college-style play at the high school level.”

That matchup with St. John’s this past season was even televised on ESPN2.

Palmer is a bully of a running back at 6-foot, 225 pounds. Stefanelli compares Palmer’s downhill approach to that of Marshawn Lynch, and Palmer said he credits the time he spent in Good Counsel’s weight room for increasing his size and speed year after year to run that way.

“Our strength program, in my opinion, is one of the best in the nation,” Palmer said. “Our strength coach always gets us right before the season and you can tell.”

The running back said he thinks him and his high school teammates will transition smoothly into JMU’s strength and conditioning program because of the one they had to endure at Good Counsel. If the three of them can do that successfully, they’ll set themselves up to make an impact early in their college careers with the Dukes.

And at Good Counsel is where Ayamel and Green initially connected with JMU. Assistants from former coach Mike Houston’s staff stopped at the school and convinced the two of them to take a trip to Harrisonburg.

Ayamel and Green said that was when a number of different colleges were after them late in their junior years.

“They were saying if we come down to campus, they’d offer us,” Ayamel said. “So me and Jalen were like, ‘Alright,’ and we drove down together with his dad. We got the offer together that same day and after a while our recruiting started slowing down, so we just were like, ‘If we’re going FCS, JMU is the best FCS program.’”

Ayamel and Green verbally committed in July and at that time it didn’t look likely Palmer would be a member of the same recruiting class.

“The old staff expressed interest in Latrele,” Green said, “and were going to try to work out the money problem scholarship wise, and they never did work that out. It was clear they liked him, but Latrele was in a place where it was like, ‘What’s going on?’ which is completely understandable.”

Stefanelli and Palmer said Palmer was plagued by, but played through injury during his junior season with the Falcons. He had a torn meniscus, but didn’t know it until the season was over, so it wasn’t until he began to show increased speed as a senior that more colleges offered him.

JMU, though, had two other running backs – Hermitage’s (Richmond) CJ Jackson and Mount Vernon’s (Atlanta) Austin Douglas – in its class and was not looking to add a third under Houston.

“It was a messed up situation,” Palmer said. “So one day in the mail, I had received an official offer letter from Coach Houston, and so I ended up texting the recruiter saying thanks for the offer and everything, and then he was like, ‘No, that offer was a mistake.’

“I was devastated.”

But one of those schools that entered the picture for Palmer was Elon where new Dukes coach Curt Cignetti had originally offered the running back. Upon his hiring at JMU, Cignetti made it clear he would target another high school rusher for this recruiting class.

That was Palmer.

“Me and Jalen just became recruiters and tried to get him to come along with us,” Ayamel said. “Then we went on our official visit and [Palmer] was there, had a great time and he committed that day.

“His parents know my parents and Jalen’s parents, so they were also recruiting his parents, and once his parents fell in love with the school, he basically had no choice and had to commit.”

In the days between Houston’s departure for East Carolina and Cignetti’s hiring at Madison, Ayamel and Green had other schools try and poach them from JMU’s recruiting class. Both said Cignetti and Elon were after them the hardest until Cignetti traded his Phoenix polo in for one with a Duke dog logo and began recruiting and trying to keep Ayamel and Green on board for JMU.

Ayamel ended up with 18 scholarship offers including ones from most schools in the Colonial Athletic Association along with three FBS programs and five IVY League teams. Green had 13 scholarship choices including ones from Virginia and Liberty he also considered before he gave his verbal to JMU. Palmer had five CAA offers along with ones from Air Force, Army and Navy.

“We have a lot of colleges that come through our school recruiting our players,” Stefanelli said. “So we tell ‘em: ‘Look don’t fall in love with the coach. The coach is certainly important in the process, but don’t make your decision necessarily on a position coach or even a head coach. Make sure you really like the school,’ and then the reality of it today is that there’s a real good possibility for these kids that the coach who recruits them may not be there four or five years down the road, so that’s how we advise them and I think that serves them well.

“I know in Julio’s and Jalen’s cases, they really liked JMU. They liked it down there, and Latrele did too, but he hadn’t been offered yet. But I think that’s the best advice we can give ‘em. We encourage them to go visit a number of schools and not to write off any because they haven’t heard of it, and they were real good about listening to that part of it.”

Green was a first-team All-Met selection by the Washington Post this past season for the 14 sacks he notched. He said he classifies himself as a pass rusher who can play against the run, too.

“He’s a dominant, dominant pass-rushing defensive end,” Stefanelli said. “Frankly, he would be going to a Power Five school if he were two inches taller, but he’s at that level of talent, so he’s an impact guy. He’s got an incredible knack for rushing the passer. He does other things, and he plays the run and does everything well, but that’s his specialty.”

Rivals.com ranked Green as the 22nd best high school prospect in Maryland. Ayamel was tabbed as the 23rd best, and those are the only two players bound for an FCS program in the Rivals.com Top 25 prospects for Maryland.

Stefanelli said Ayamel is one of the smartest football players he’s had at Good Counsel and that he allowed his team’s leading tackler to run the defense from snap to snap.

“The defensive coordinator calls the plays,” Ayamel said. “But I basically run the whole show on the field. After he calls the plays, I can audible it, I can change it or I can call it off. [Stefanelli] gives me the power to do a lot of things and they entrusted me to do a lot, make the right reads, call the right things and put our guys in the right positions when a team comes out in a different formation or whatever it is.”

Ayamel and Palmer have known each other since the sixth grade and all three have played together since the eighth grade. Ayamel said they all plan to room together at JMU as well.

“Since I play offense and they play defense, we know we have each other’s back,” Palmer said.

“It’s going to be great,” Ayamel said. “Me and Jalen on the defensive side, we’re going to be able to help each other, learn the plays and do what we need to do, and then also compete against ‘Trel on the offensive side of the ball. We’re going to be able to make him better.”

Green said they’re all ready for the next step.

“Going through the recruiting process, I don’t think any of us would’ve thought we’d be in this situation with all three of us going to the same college,” Green said. “But of course it’s going to be exciting because we’re buddies and we have fun, and we’ll do what we do now.

“But the next stage of our life is really important and we’re going together. It’ll make the transition from high school to college easier. We’ll really be around each other and we’ll figure things out together rather than on our own.”