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Kumar Davis to UMass

Stanford's loss is UMass's gain.

Eastside running back/safety Kumar Davis said he grew tired of waiting
to hear if he had been admitted to Stanford, and ultimately decided to play for Division I-AA UMass instead. The Minutemen finished 10-3 and ranked No. 6 nationally last season.

The 6-foot, 200-pound Davis will sign a National Letter of Intent Thursday  at Eastside. Twenty four hours later, he will play for the Passaic County basketball championship when No. 6 Eastside meets No. 1 Paterson Catholic at noon at Wayne Valley.

"I'm real excited," Davis said Thursday by phone. "They're I-AA but they still have big-time football and they still compete for the national
championship often."

Davis Visiting UMass; Zenock to Sacred Heart

Eastside running back/safety Kumar Davis is visiting UMass and staying with a host from Teaneck, redshirt sophomore defensive end Mike Hanson.

"I came up with my father," Davis said Sunday night. "We'll be here until Tuesday. We're going to see the stadium, the weight room and all the facilities."

The 6-foot, 200-pound Davis is still waiting to hear if he has been admitted to Stanford, which remains his first choice. The school has already offered him a scholarship.

Signing Not So Easy

PATERSON – Kumar Davis is waiting for the biggest phone call of his life.

Clayton White, an assistant coach with the Stanford football team, is expected to call the defensive back/running back at any moment and tell him one of two things.

Either he has been accepted into Stanford or he has not.

Read the full story here.

And in an unrelated story, how about this kid from Nevada, Kevin Hart, who held a press conference last week to announce he was signing with Cal, when it turned out he had no scholarship offers at all?

"When I realized that wasn't going to happen, I made up what I wanted to be reality. I am sorry for disappointing and embarrassing my family, coaches, Fernley High School, the involved universities and reporters covering the story," Hart told the AP.

Other signing day stories of interest...

Sengotta, Silversey Commit

Two more commitments just in. DePaul senior FB/LB Nicholas Sengotta of East Orange has signed with Division I-AA Bryant University in Smithfield, RI, and QB/DB Dennis Silversey of Pompton Lakes will play for Division II Stonehill College in Easton, Mass.

This continues DePaul's trend of producing scholarship players. A year ago, the school sent Chaz Cervino to Syracuse and Bryan Gambuzza and Greg Gillispie to Minnesota-Duluth.

Sengotta and Silversey are pictured above with DePaul head coach John McKenna and offensive line coach Bryan Murray.

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PC Trio Commits

Two more standout linemen from Paterson Catholic's Non-Public Group 1 championship team have given oral commitments and signed on National Signing Day.

Doug Alston,a 6-foot-3, 210-pound defensive end who was named second-team All-State by The Associated Press and selected the 2007 Herald News Defensive Player of the Year, has committed to Division I-AA Maine, choosing that school over Norfolk (Va.) State, Monmouth and Wofford (S.C.) College.

Joseph Thompson, a 6-2, 320-pound offensive lineman who was named first-team Associated Press All-State and first-team Herald News All-Area, chose Division II Virginia State.

Alston and Thompson join defensive end Jarel Lowery, a first-team All-Area and third-team All-State selection who previously committed to Syracuse also signed, Wednesday.

Read the full story here.

Hills Quartet Commits

Tim  Waller and Jeremiah Kayal helped lead one of the best high school defenses in the state last year for a Wayne Hills team that went a perfect 12-0 and won its fourth straight North 1, Group 3 championship.

Now the first-team Associated Press All-State duo will head to Division I-AA Georgetown where they hope to replicate that success.

"We had the best defense in the state and hopefully we can go down to Georgetown and continue that," the 6-foot, 180-pound Kayal said Wednesday, the day he and Waller signed National Letters of Intent.

Waller and Kayal are among four Patriots who committed to colleges Wednesday. RB/LB Danny DeCicco, also a first-team All-State selection, signed with Division II New Haven and QB Mike Giampapa committed to Division III Johns Hopkins. RB Carlton Marcin (above), a third-team All-State utility pick, may walk on to N.C. State, though he won't sign anything.

Kayal, Waller, DeCicco, Giampapa and Marcin were part of a dynasty at Hills that won 40 straight games and helped forge the No. 1 sports story of 2007 in the Herald News coverage area.

Signing Day News: Rojas, White, Pryor, Early Signing Day?

National Signing Day is hear and the news is aplenty...

**Here's my feature on Passaic senior Adam Rojas, who hopes to spend two years at Dean College in Mass., before heading on to Division I-AA UMass.

"I really want to go straight to UMass, but since my grades aren't up to par, I have to do it," Rojas said. "But football is football."

**Mark Czerwinski has a feature on Teaneck RB Rashad White who is headed to Rutgers and has dreams of filling the big shoes of Ray Rice, a former Heisman Trophy candidate.

**Aditi Kinkhabwala has a feature suggesting an Early Signing Day for football would make sense. The story quotes Paterson Catholic senior guard Jordan Theodore, who committed early to Seton Hall in basketball.

Kennedy Duo to Delaware State

PATERSON – The Kennedy football team is quickly becoming a pipeline to Delaware State.

Seniors Keith Hunt and Marquis Spann (left) have both given oral commitments to the Division I-AA school, the alma mater of Knights coach Ron Jackson.

"I'm just happy I have two players with scholarships because there aren't too many people in (Passaic) County who are going to get full scholarships this year," Jackson said.

Read the full story here.

Wayne Valley Quartet Commits

Two more players from the Wayne Valley team that won the Northern Hills Skyline title and reached the North 1, Group 3 championshp game have committed to colleges.

Quarterback Derrick Bligh has chosen I-AA Iona and wideout Tom Papa has selected I-AA Marist.

The duo joins teammates Chris Pantale, who previously chose Division I Boston College, and running back Matt Dortch, who committed to Division I-AA Central Connecticut State.

The 6-3, 180-pound Papa was a first-team All-Northern Hills Conference and second-team All-Passaic wideout who helped the Indians reach the North 1, Group 3 final. He made 19 receptions for 338 yards and eight touchdowns. He also averaged more than 20 yards per kickoff return, including one for a touchdown.

“They’re hoping to join the Atlantic 10,” Valley coach Brian O’Connor said. “They really liked him when they saw him on film. They said he’s a little raw, but they really liked him.”

Bligh quarterbacked Valley to 11 straight wins before the team fell to Wayne Hills in the title game at Giants Stadium. He threw for 1,554 yards while completing 54 percent of his passes. He threw 20 TDs and 10 interceptions. His yardage and TD numbers both set school records.

Dortch to Central Connecticut

Matt Dortch has finally found a home.

Dortch, the 5-foot-11, 175-pound star running back who led Wayne Valley to the North 1, Group 3 title game, has given an oral commitment to Division I-AA Central Connecticut State and can sign on Wednesday, National Signing Day. He and his family are working out the details of a partial scholarship.

Dortch visited the school late last week and felt it was the best option after Division I-A Wisconsin and several other schools stopped recruiting him. Central Connecticut finished 6-5 last season and 4-2 in the Northeast Conference.

“The campus was nice,” said Dortch, a second-team Associated Press All-State selection and the 2007 Herald News Offensive Player of the Year. “It wasn’t too big, it wasn’t too small.

Read the full story here.