NCAA Football
May 6, 2009
When it comes to talented linebackers, Charlotte Christian School coach Jason Estep may have more than his share in 2009.
Estep’s lineup will feature three players who have already received major-college scholarship offers and a fourth that could wind up in that category.
One of those, David Durham, has already made a commitment to Ohio State.
Durham only recently returned to Charlotte Christian after playing his first three seasons at Westlake High in Austin, Texas. He had attended Charlotte Christian up to the seventh grade before moving to Austin.
The 6-foot-3, 220-pounder has been a stalwart the last two seasons for Westlake, making 80 tackles and 11 sacks as a sophomore and 50 tackles and four sacks last season.
Ohio State secured a pledge from Durham back in February while he was still at Westlake over offers from Illinois, Stanford, Virginia and West Virginia.
Charlotte Christian’s linebacker talent doesn’t end with Durham. Both Ty Linton and Kelby Brown have also received scholarship offers from Bowl Subdivision programs.
The 6-2, 200-pound Linton worked at outside linebacker and running back last season for the Knights. He made 68 tackles and 6.5 sacks on defense to earn private-school all-state honors as a junior. Linton also produced 1,200 all-purpose yards and scored 12 touchdowns.
Duke, Miami (Ohio), North Carolina, Syracuse, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Wake Forest, West Virginia and Wisconsin have all offered scholarships to Linton, who had been clocked at 4.49 seconds in the 40-yard dash.
Brown earned defensive most valuable player honors last season in helping Charlotte Christian win the state independent schools championship.
A 6-2, 200-pounder, Brown collected 84 tackles, eight tackles for losses and had two interceptions. Indiana and Syracuse have offered scholarships to Brown.
Matt Hall, a 6-foot, 185-pounder, is the fourth member of the linebacking corps.
One of the state’s top college prospects for 2010, defensive end Gabe King, may not be eligible to compete for a North Carolina public school team next fall.
King violated a N.C. High School Athletic Association residency rule last season while playing for Greensboro’s Page High School. The 6-foot-6, 253-pounder lived in Greensboro with his sister, who is not his legal guardian, while attending Page last year, according to reports in the Greensboro News & Record. His mother told the News & Record after she moved to Winston-Salem in June 2008 that the the Page coaching staff led her to believe her son would still be eligible to play there.
King was eventually dismissed from the Page team halfway through the season. His family recently relocated to the Northern Guilford High school district and King enrolled there late last month.
But the NCHSAA could keep King from playing at Northern Guilford as well. Violating residency rules can earn athlete’s a year-long ban from competing in any sport.
King said last week during a combine in Charlotte his family is appealing such a ban.
If he isn’t allowed to play at a public school, King could attend an in-state private school or head to prep school like Fork Union Military Academy or Hargrave Military Academy, both in Virginia.
King has received more than 25 scholarship offers from major programs like Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Michigan and Tennessee.
A second member of North Carolina’s recruiting Class of 2009 won’t be enrolling next fall.
Wide receiver Vincent “Ray-Ray’’ Davis from Sun Valley High School in Monroe will attend Hutchinson Community College in Kansas next fall instead of UNC due to academic issues.
The Tar Heels are helping place the 5-11, 200-pounder at the junior college.
Angelo Hadley, a defensive back from Seffner, Fla., was released from his national letter-of-intent last week by the Tar Heels after he was arrested for the second time in a month.
Fayetteville Observer reporter Sammy Batten can be reached at battens@fayobserver.com or (910) 486-3534.
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