Penda Sports
DePriest Stands apart from other AthletesBy BRYANT BILLINGCommentarySPRINGFIELD — It was April 10, 2010 — the day after Springfield two-sport athlete B.J. Bush’s birthday. the Springfield baseball squad was in the last inning in a game with Tecumseh — which they went on to win 10-1 — and Trey DePriest, who had played both football and baseball with Bush for three years, was notifying teammates and coaches of where he was going to celebrate his friend’s birthday.“We’re going to go to ‘bdubs’ at about 5,” DePriest said, referring to every teenager’s favorite restaurant, Buffalo Wild Wings.Of course, a second Buffalo Wild Wings opened on Bechtle Avenue in Springfield around a year ago, so the question was asked by a teammate of which ‘BW3’s’ the party would be at.“the downtown one,” DePriest said, looking up and smiling. “I’m loyal to the South side.”And it’s fitting that approximately three-and-a-half months later, DePriest will be announcing his college choice from his favorite restaurant. Not only is he loyal to Buffalo Wild Wings and giving them the gift of attracting hundreds of people to their restaurant, but he is loyal to Springfield and the South side that helped raise him. It’s no secret that, when DePriest was an incoming freshman at South High School in 2007, the program was, well, looking toward the future of the combined Springfield High School, and that, while the team was, hardly anyone else was giving serious thought to South’s final season. the coaching staff was, well, not impressive to a player who college scouts were already aware of in his freshman season.It’s also no secret that DePriest’s childhood friend Braxton Miller left South and enrolled at Wayne High School starting in his freshman season. while that was the best decision for Miller (refer to my commentary Braxton Miller is Committed to the Future), DePriest chose to stay and play for South and hold out for the new Springfield High School.And in that time, from a South team that went 1-9 in his freshman season, DePriest has helped build the new Springfield High School into a contender that went 6-4 in 2009 and qualified for the first playoff berth for a Springfield City School since South made the playoffs in 2002.He didn’t have to stay, but he did indeed stay near his childhood home, near his middle school, Hayward, and in his hometown.DePriest has given the community of Springfield much, and Springfield High School so much more.“It’s no secret that Trey’s to thank for a lot of these people in the stands,” Springfield head coach Rick Robertson said after the Wildcats lost to Wayne in a game in October of 2009. “A lot of the people in the stands support both Springfield and [Wayne], but to say that [some] of these people came out to watch Trey and Braxton… it’s wrong. They’re a draw.”And, during separate interviews, Robertson has pointed out that, with having a highly-touted recruit on the team, attention has been drawn to other players.“having someone like Trey on the team has helped with some of our other guys getting attention from schools,” Robertson said during a radio interview in 2009. “All it takes is a coach to go online and watch some highlights of Trey and notice another player looking good, and then look at our other players’ videos. or, they come to a practice to see Trey, and then notice another player. We’ve actually got some kids who are getting recruited by MAC schools who were noticed only after the schools were looking into Trey.”In other words, the recruiting trail has come through Springfield.Perhaps that greatest trait DePriest has shown through this whole process is a true sense of humbleness. never in three years has he really ever once wanted to talk about his recruitment, and he always has given credit back to his respective teams.“It’s really neat to have them here,” DePriest said when he was asked about what he thought about a group of football scouts from a university that came to watch him play in a baseball game last April. “but it’s really neat with what we’re doin’ here with the [baseball] team.”In an era where you have ‘super-star’ athletes like Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens playing an hour away from Springfield, and in an era in which five-star recruits like Terrelle Pryor and Seantrel Henderson drag out the recruiting process as long as they can and keep it all about their own interests, DePriest stands out and aside from the pack.Who’s to thank? It’s in the upbringing. It’s in his mother. It’s in his grandparents. It’s in his close friends, family friends, and friends of family who have helped install the morals he has.Sure, DePriest is a teenager, and he is a normal teenager and has normal habits associated with the connotation that comes with the word. but, if compare him to other teenage prospects, and to other athletes much older than him, you can tell a key difference: Trey DePriest is loyal._____In the photo: Trey DePriest (back left) pursues a Fairborn quarterback (front) during a scrimmage game last August. DePriest will announce his college choice this Friday, July 30, at the Buffalo Wild Wings at 42 N. Fountain Ave. in Springfield at 5:00 p.m. File Photo by Bryant Billing_____Labels:Bryant Billing,High School Football,high school football recruiting,Ohio State football,Trey DePriest,Trey DePriest announcement,Trey DePriest decision,Trey DePriest recruiting
