You may not have heard of Aramide Olaniyan yet, but you will. Woodberry Forest (Va.) coach Clint Alexander assures you of that. We mentioned how important he is to Duke’s program today, in our look at Carolinas’ schools' primary recruiting targets in The Observer.
Olaniyan, who is originally from Nigeria, plays DL/OB for Woodberry Forest's football team, and when I caught up with Alexander by phone recently, his squad had just finished practice.
“Aramide destroyed our offense,” Alexander said. “I’m out there watching and he’s absolutely destroying us.”
Alexander was having his offense run a “coming out” drill, in which the unit attempts to get two first downs coming out of its own end zone. Except that Olaniyan simply wouldn’t let the offense accomplish its task.
“He was getting tackles for loss at least every other play, sometimes two out of three,” Alexander said, chuckling. “He was messing up the whole drill.
“I’ve got two Division-I line prospects and a center who’s nastier than they are and he’s just killing them. At one point, he just blew by two blockers and crushed the quarterback.
“He’s the fastest kid you’re ever going to block—literally.”
While Woodberry Forest uses Olaniyan, who is 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, on the line often because of that 4.5-second speed, he projects as a LB in college.
We’ll tell you more later about the recruiting war heating up for him—with a whole bunch of schools getting involved.
--Stan Olson
Monday, August 31, 2009
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7 comments:
This kid is a monster. He's only 16 too. If he goes to a school that will use him properly, he will be a household name. I wish the Charlotte private schools would schedule Woodberry again. I guess they got tired of losing 42-7 to another private school.
I guess they didn't put what sport to gain interest in the article, still interested but just though it was a basketball article........
Anon 3:00, not sure I agree with your comments about the CLT private schools. I went to Woodberry and their football program was usually decent, but never any sort of power - not even on the private school level in Virginia.
Granted, they've done a bit more recruiting in recent years (or at least that appears to be the case), but I'd be willing to bet teams like Latin and Country Day have superior teams to Woodberry on a pretty regular basis.
I would love to see Woodberry come into town and play those schools though, regardless of the outcome.
Guys, the kid is just 16, something I forgot to mention. Which means he still may not have reached his full potential...
Anon 3:25
I went to Woodberry also. I think you're selling us a little short. I know after I left we beat Christian pretty bad, and beat Country Day and Latin the two years before I went. I think the only Prep League game we lost in my last 3 years was to FUMA, and maybe one to Collegiate. To be fair, I think the Latin team a couple years ago would have beaten us, but I am supremely confident that we would beat Country Day, Latin and Christian this year and most years.
No offense Stan, but no high school player has reached their full potential yet. It would also be interesting to see how dominant this kid is in a state all-star game or any other game not against private boarding school kids.
No offense taken. But this high school coach has seen a lot of college bound players, and is HUGELY impressed with this one. I just think he's a pretty good judge of talent, as is Butch Davis
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