St. Louis star sets three official visits

One of the elite players in St. Louis that has yet to make his mind is St. Louis Hazelwood Central athlete Nick Patterson and the 6-foot-2, 200 pound three-star pick has already lined up three of his official visits.

Patterson, ranked as the nation’s No. 23 athlete, is scheduled to visit Ohio State on December 5, Missouri on December 12 and UCLA on December 19. Wisconsin, Indiana, Vanderbilt and Illinois are going to battle for the final two official visits.

Patterson has scholarship offers from all of the teams, except for UCLA and Illinois.

“Recruiting is going really well,” Patterson said. “I’m enjoying the whole thing and getting to know the coaches. It’s getting better. When it first started, it was such a wide range of schools, but now that I’ve narrowed it down to eight or nine schools, it’s allowed me to build relationships with the coaches. It’s hard to narrow it down, but I feel good about the schools on my list.”

Patterson talked earlier this evening to Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel.

“He just wanted to talk to me personally,” Patterson said. “We’ve talked before, but it’s always good to talk to a head coach and know where you stand with them. We talked about beating Nebraska. I’m going to go over to the game when I’m done with our game on Saturday. We play early enough for me to get over there.”

Patterson said he’s not leaning one way or the other at this point.

On the field, Patterson has helped Central to a 3-2 record with solid performances on offense and defense – even though teams won’t challenge him at cornerback.

“I’d rather have them challenge me, but I can understand that coaches have their game plans,” he said. “We have a big game against Hazelwood East this week. They’re the No. 1 team in our region. We’re going to have to gang tackle and play like a team to beat them.”