Top recruits not feeling pressure

Updated: July 15, 2011 1:32PM

Sitting with his coach Jim Green in an office at Plano High School, Reapers running back and defensive back Joseph Jones talked about having to deal with the pressures of being a highly-touted recruit during game nights this coming season.

One of the few Reapers to ever earn a NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I) scholarship to a Big Ten school, the Northwestern-bound Jones said he looks forward to the added scrutiny from fans and opponents, as well as the added responsibility of being a leader on his team.

Jones said his main focus wasn’t just making the playoffs, but winning Plano’s third state title.

Matt Williams is in the same boat at Geneva, having committed to Northern Illinois University.

After picking the Huskies and ending his recruitment early, Williams acknowledged he never thought about people looking at him in a different light, and he didn’t seem to care. His goal remained winning a state championship with the Vikings.

Aurora Christian quarterback Anthony Maddie became the third Beacon-News coverage area senior to commit this summer a few weeks ago, telling Western Michigan coach Bill Cubit that he’ll enroll there in the fall of 2012.

In doing so, he fell in line with Jones and Williams in embracing their heightened status in the prep football scene and focusing on a larger team goal.

“All I’m worried about now is winning state,” Maddie said. “At this point, nothing else is on my mind.”

Like Jones, Maddie has the added weight on his shoulders of being the first player under coach Don Beebe to commit to an FBS school in a major college conference.

“In my mind, it doesn’t change anything, but if other people say I’m a Division I football player and I’m going to Western Michigan it probably changes their mind a little bit and they may try to focus on stopping me a little more,” Maddie said. “But my job is to get the ball to other players.

“Quarterbacks get a lot of publicity but it’s really about the other guys, so if they want to focus on me then we’re going to have a good run game. If teams want to focus on me, all I’ve got to do is get the ball out into the wide receiver’s hands and let them do what they’re going to do.”

Unlike Jones, Williams, and future area commits down the line, Maddie spent his entire junior campaign in a fishbowl after Joliet Catholic didn’t initially sign off on his transfer to Aurora Christian — so he has a bit of experience in dealing with expectation. And this came after quarterbacking the Hilltoppers in the 2009 Class 5A state title game.

“He’s a high school kid but a Division I quarterback and that comes with some pressure,” Beebe admitted. “I think I’ll be able to help him handle that — but at the end of the day it’s going to have to be him. I will say this — athletes I have witnessed over the years that cannot handle this don’t succeed very well. I think and hope he does. I think he performed pretty well with what was going on last year, but it’s going to be another level this year.”

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