Prep school for LB

One of the most productive linebackers in the region hasn't received any offers yet, but that hasn't kept him from expecting to pick up some. He has altered his list of favorites and is receiving a lot of attention.

"Navy, Virginia, West Virginia, Richmond, William & Mary, and Dartmouth are my favorites because those are the schools that are all still recruiting me," said linebacker Jon Copper. "I don't have any offers yet."

While he hasn't received any offers, Copper helped accomplish a milestone for his Roanoke (Va.) Northside squad.

"We went 10-0 in the regular season and that's the first time that's ever happened in Northside history. We were the No. 1 team in the state for quite a long time, but lost in the first round of the playoffs to a really good Blacksburg team.

"I had about 123 total tackles, and graded out about 97 or 98-percent on the offensive line all year playing offensive guard. I also played 10 games at linebacker and I liked that a lot. I played both ways, offense and defense during the year. I'm looking forward to playing only one way in college. I also played on the special teams some."

Has Copper taken any visits yet?

"I went to Virginia Tech and had a visit scheduled with Virginia but wasn't able to go due to a family get-together that my parents had scheduled.

"I'm thinking about taking a year or a semester to go up to Hargrave Military Academy and work on getting faster and getting ready to be more competitive at the Division 1 level. This was my first year playing linebacker and I think it'd be good to take some time to learn the position well. I think it would definitely be good as far as getting me ready to play on the next level.

"I'm going to check out Hargrave over the next month or so and see if that's the direction I want to go. I really like UVA, and I think it'd be good to get more competitive experience under my belt. I talked to Justin London about it quite a bit. Some of his friends went there and got some offers and it's like nearly everyone that goes there gets some offers. I'm not sure where I'm going to go yet, but that's definitely a good possibility."

Copper has scored a 1250 on his SAT and would be fully qualified to play.