Four Ridgewood graduates will play football in college
FRIDAY JULY 27, 2012, 1:08 PM
BY JIM MCCONVILLE
CORRESPONDENT
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD — Four Ridgewood High School football players who graduated this year will be looking forward to the beginning of practice in a few short weeks as they take their skills to the college level.
Anthony Balboa (Susquehanna), Michael Johnson (Amherst), Mike Camporini (Springfield) and Blake Feagles (Avon Old Farm, CT) will carry the Maroon football torch into the fall, with all four hoping to make an instant impact on their respective teams.
“It is a good fit for all four of them,” Ridgewood head football coach Chuck Johnson said. “They all did a great job for us last season, and I know they’ll be contributors on their new teams as well.”
The number might have been higher if not for a few of the Maroons accepting lacrosse scholarships. Most notably in this group are Tripp Telesco (Lehigh) and Peter Reuter (Bowdoin).
Susquehanna, Amherst, Springfield and Avon Old Farm…good thing we spent so much money on turf fields…these colleges probably don’t even have turf fields!
Avon Old Farms is a high school prep school, not a college. So three RHS 2012 graduate football players will be going off to play football and one will be going to a prep skills to master his skills at a new position in preparation for college.
A Ridgewood High School graduate is headed for high school? You must be wrong.
#3 – no, not wrong. Avon Old Farms is a high school level prep school (Google it). With that said, I am not knocking his attending (isn’t this referred to as “red shirting”). I admire his parents for allowing him time to pursue his interest and develop his skills at a new position. Most parents would go crazy if their already talented college-bound kid said, in 12th grade, “you know what, I’d really like to have a go at some other position”.
Attending Avon is not a form of red shirting if a team is read shirting a player they do it when he is at the college. The reason graduates attend prep schools after their graduation is so they can get another year of education to improve their grades, mature, etc. Going to a prep school is more common in lacrosse rather than football but it happens in all sports.