Mealy looking for his first offer

Running back Patrick Mealy out of Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha doesn't hold an offer, but the prospect is receiving interest from a handful of schools. Who is the 5-foot-10, 190-pounder receiving mail from and who does he favor?

"Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Alabama and the Naval Academy have shown interest," he said. "I don't really have any favorites at the moment. I like them all."

The Maryland prospect has visited a few of the schools this summer already.

"I've been down to UVA two times, North Carolina and Maryland obviously," he said. "I liked North Carolina's facilities, they are really nice. They seem to have a lot of tradition there and the campus is nice too. I'm pretty strong on UVA because my family is from down there. They live about an hour away from Charlottesville, so there are a lot of family ties there, but they are also a great school.

"Maryland is the hometown school. I know everybody there and the coaches know my school. Some days I'm drawn into wanting to stay home and others I'm not. All the schools have pretty good academics though and good business programs."

With him being pretty wide open still, what is Mealy looking for in a school?

"Of course I want to play football and get a degree from a school too," he said. "My main thing though is just to be surrounded by people that work hard."

Despite not having a clear favorite, Mealy does have two schools he'd like to take official visits to.

"First one I'd like to get to is UNC because they have a good business school," he said. "The other is Ohio. Their facilities are awesome and I want to check it out more."

Mealy plans to take all five official visits most likely after the season.

Last season the prospect ran for 600 yards and 10 touchdowns while sharing the running back duties with three other players. This year he will see substantially more time with only one other back sharing the duties.

"I'm ready to take the challenge and I'm going to get a lot more carries this year," he said. "I've got a lot to prove and I want to show everybody I can play. I also want to get my third championship and keep the DeMatha tradition alive."

Mealy was named second team all-WCAC as a linebacker last year.