NorCal athlete sets 1st official visit

Although it's tough not to be overshadowed when three of your teammates have close to 20 scholarship offers on their resume, Oakland (Calif.) McClymonds athlete Rico Thomas has a handful of scholarship offers as well and set up his first official visit recently.

Thomas, 5-10, 165 pounds is a shifty running back with good quickness and power. He was one of the top backs we saw at the NorCal Nike camp and earned a couple of scholarship offers following the event. He could also play defensive back in college and is one of the top two way players in the state.

"He has about six or seven right now," McClymonds coach Alonzo Carter said. "Utah, Utah State, San Diego State, UNLV and Nevada are a few I can remember. He's going to visit San Diego State (Nov. 18) and we're going to set visits with Nevana and UNLV pretty soon here as well.

"Rico is a player that I think will have a breakout senior season so we want to make sure we leave a couple of spots open in case a Pac 10 school jumps in and wants to trip him in. Right now, he's very interested in all the schools that are showing interest in him and is looking forward to going out and doing it on the field."

At the Nike camp, Thomas clocked a 4.72 in the 40, 4.31 in the shuttle and did 24 reps on the bench. He has a bit of work to do academically but should be qualified by the time Signing Day rolls around.