Thursday, July 15, 2010
College choice becoming clearer For Cave Spring’s Cole
Remember Brandon Holland
Doug Doughty
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He’s going to make people wait until Aug. 2 before he goes public.
Cole said he will announce his choice on Greg Roberts Live, a radio talk show on Roanoke AM station 960.
Roberts is plugged into the Virginia Tech football program, so the first inclination is to think Cole will pick the Hokies, but Cole offered no hints to that effect Thursday in a phone interview.
“If anybody from our area wants to announce his college choice, I want him on,” Roberts said. “I don’t care if he [or she] is going to Florida. But, really, who was the last I-A signee we had? I can’t remember”
We’ve gone over this before. Just a month ago, in fact. I think we decided it was Northside linebacker Justin London in 2003 but some research today uncovered ex-Vikings’ offensive lineman Brandon Holland in 2004, the same year that Fleming’s Maurice Kitchens signed with Marshall.
Holland signed again with the Hokies in 2005, after a postgraduate season at Hargrave Military Academy. If you want to count that, Cave Spring graduate Danny Aiken signed with UVa in 2007 after a year at Fork Union.
Cole, a 6-foot-2, 205-pounder who is a prospect at outside linebacker or safety, has Division I-A scholarship offers from Tech, Penn State, Virginia, Duke, Maryland, Connecticut and Ohio University.
Cole was in Blacksburg this Tuesday mostly to meet with academic people. He places his grade-point average somewhere in the 4.1-4.2 range and he scored 1,230 on the Scholastic Assessment Test (math and verbal).
“I didn’t have any real concerns,” said Cole, who has given thought to attending medical school after college. “When I went up to Penn State a couple of weeks ago, I kind of got the whole thing on one day. I just had a couple of things left at Virginia Tech.
“I hadn’t talked to the academic people beforehand and I thought that was important. I sat down with the academic people and talked to them about the plans I have in terms of going into pre-med and how Virginia Tech would be able to help me.
“Also, then, I talked to the team doctor. I think he’s the head of VCOM [Blacksburg’s Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine]. For the past couple of years, that’s [med school] where I’ve had my mind set.”
Cole was referring to Dr. Gunnar Brolinson, associate dean of clinical research.
Cole was at Penn State on June 23 and then, again, over the weekend of June 26-27.
“I went up Wednesday that week to get a tour and talk to everybody,” he said. “Then, I went to my grandparents’ house, which is about two hours away, outside of Pittsburgh. I came back on Saturday to be coached by the coaches and see how that was going to be.”
Cole also met privately with Nittany Lions’ coach Joe Paterno.
“It was something special, talking to a legend like that face-to-face, and getting to know him,” Cole said. “He’s a really great guy and everything that everybody says he is. He cares more about others than himself. It was really a great experience.”
Paterno turns 84 in December, a topic that was not raised during the face-to-face meeting.
“He didn’t bring that up,” Cole said, “but that was a question in my mind. He probably won’t be there, unfortunately, for much longer.
“I talked to coach [Bill] Kenney. He’s my recruiting coordinator and I kind of expressed that concern to him. He doesn’t know the plan [for succession] but he does know that there is a plan set in stone.”
Cole was hindered by injuries on several occasions last year but is “probably in the best shape of my life,” he said. “I’ve been working out hard. I weigh about 205 pounds. I think I’m fast now, too.”
Cole said the injuries have frustrated him “maybe a little bit,” he said, “but I can’t control those. That’s one of the things you have to learn, to get through adversity.”
