USA Dreams of Landing Sleeper

In recruiting, there are unknowns, sleepers and players who are “under the radar,” but none of these are strong enough to describe Romelle Jones. Entering his senior year of high school, Jones has only played one season of organized football and that was several years ago in middle school . Grown now to 6’1” and 260lbs, Jones stands ready to make an impact for a very talented East St. Johns team.

Jones was discovered this past spring in a PE class that was taught by one of the football team’s assistant coaches. When the coach saw an athlete this size dunk a basketball with two hands, he immediately called head coach Larry Dauterive to take look.

“He’s an incredible athlete, but I said ‘let’s get the pads on him and see how he does,’” said Dauterive. “He was one of the best players we had this spring. He doesn’t take any slow steps. He does everything full speed. I asked (highly recruited East St. Johns offensive lineman) Patrick Lewis about him and he said he might be the best defensive lineman he’s ever faced.”

Jones was forced to spend a few years away from athletics while he attended to some family issues. With those now dealt with and his academics firmly in order (he has scored a 20 on the ACT), Jones in looking forward to making up for lost time in his final year of high school.

“It’s ridiculous how much I’m excited,” he said. “Right now it seems like my life is finally back on track to where I need it to be. I’m just really enjoying my life.”

A scheduled trip to Mobile to visit the University of South Alabama has been delayed, but Jones expects to make it there in the month of June. He feels that he may very likely give his verbal commitment at that time. In the meanwhile, Jones continues to attract attention from other colleges. While USA is the only school to extend an offer at this point, Northern Illinois, Hofstra and Louisiana Tech have all expressed interest in this intriguing prospect.

When asked what has attracted him to the Jag program, Jones quickly named three factors: The proximity to his home, the presence of family (his grandmother lives in Mobile and a cousin attends USA), and the coaching staff.

“The coach I met, Coach Koenning, is really nice and down-to-earth. He seems like someone you could actually talk to, not like it’s just all business, but you could actually talk to him if you had problems.”

While USA is the leader right now for Romelle Jones, he will certainly receive much more attention this fall as East St. Johns is always a destination for college recruiters. Stay tuned as we follow the recruitment of this talented, unknown, sleeper, “under the radar” prospect.