NEW: Traveling man

Suthmoore's Wilson leaves college coaches with strong impression

By Michael Kinney

MOORE — Julian Wilson has had a busy summer. Besides the workouts with his Southmoore High School teammates, the 6-foot-2, 175-pound wideout has traveled the country impressing college coaches.

But it was a week-long summer camp in Norman that has brought Wilson some of his most promising results. The University of Oklahoma has joined the growing list of schools interested in the senior to be.

“My newest ones are OU, and I got a verbal offer from Florida, Arkansas, Colorado, Colorado State and Baylor,” Wilson said. “In all I have 15 total offers.”

Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Stanford, Air Force, Arizona, SMU and Tulsa also are part of Wilson’s possible choices on where he will continue his football career when he graduates from Southmoore.

But the fact that he was given offers from elite programs such as Oklahoma and the Gators only after one full year of varsity football, has Wilson excited. It doesn’t hurt that both teams played for the National Championship earlier this year.

“That’s real good,” Wilson said. “They only recruit from the top best in the nation. I mean they said I was good enough to offer. It’s a hometown school. Close to home. It’s a great school. They are constantly in the hunt for the championship. That’s hard to put down. Florida too. They are the top two schools in the nation besides USC. It’s going to be a hard choice.”

Wilson attended the Florida camp this summer, where his coach Chris Jensen said he was one of the fastest players on the field after running a 4.4 in the 40 yard dash. That shouldn’t be a surprise since he finished in the top five in the 100 and 200-meter dashes during the state track and field championships.

As a junior Wilson accounted for only 21 catches, 265 yards and three touchdowns. But his numbers were hurt when starting quarterback Kendal Thompson was injured midway through the season.

Yet, it may be on the defensive end that Wilson finds himself in college. As a corner with the SaberCats he totaled 43 tackles and six pass break ups.

Regardless of where his future lands him, Wilson is using the offseason to get ready for a standout senior campaign.

“Just getting bigger, faster and stronger,” Wilson said. “Pretty much the offseason is just hard work. Just got to keep on working hard. Me and the team are starting to come together. We have some chemistry under our belts. This season we should produce a lot better than we did last year. We have our key players back. Things should go good this year.”

Despite the notoriety and attention Wilson has started to garner, he said he is making sure he stays grounded.

“It’s like a roller coaster,” Wilson said. “It’s going real crazy. I just focus on being a good player to my team and just staying humble. Because you know that when most people get all these offers, they get cocky or let it go to their head. I just work on staying humble because I know I still have work to do. I still have to produce another season before any of this is official.”



SaberCat Camp

Southmoore started its Summer Pride football camp last week. More than 80 players have been on hand to get ready for the upcoming season.

“We have got to get those kids out of the air conditioning,” Jensen said. “Get them back into condition. We only gave them two weeks off and we can tell they took advantage of those two weeks. This has been a good week to get them back out there.”

One of those players includes Nyko Symonds. The 6-foot, 165-pound junior transferred from Norman North, where he was a standout on both sides of the ball. Jensen said Symonds has performed well in camp so far.



Thompson shines

Kendal Thompson took time away from Summer pride last weekend when he traveled to Edmond for the Top Gun Quarterback Challenge.

Top Gun events are held throughout the summer across the nation. The challenge allows recruiters a chance to see players in events that mirror the attributes they are looking for in potential prospects. Quarterbacks compete in mental testing, coverage call, physical testing, speed and mobility, stationary accuracy, on-the-move accuracy and the deep ball.

Madill’s Spencer Bond won the challenge as he held off Danny Rossi of Edmond North.

Other competitors included Union’s Chase Boyce, Casady’s Cale Shivers, Norman North’s Brad Valentino. Thompson held his own, despite recovering from a broken pelvis.

“Kendal is looking real good,” Wilson said. “His hip is looking fine. He has his mobility back. He can cut now. He is looking pretty good right about now.”

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