Much has been made about recruiting young athletes for high school football and basketball programs at successively younger ages. Still, what Tyreke Johnson is on the verge of may be a new threshold.
As reported by MaxPreps, Johnson is the younger brother of DeAndre Johnson, a top quarterback prospect out of Jacksonville (Fl.) First Coast School. Johnson earned national acclaim in both of his first two seasons, has started each and every game of his high school career and already holds a host of Division I scholarship offers. DeAndre Johnson has already committed to Florida State and stands as the coup of the Seminoles’ current recruiting class of 2015.
DeAndre Johnson’s younger brother Tyreke is still in seventh grade, but according to coaches, he’s already on the verge of receiving many of the offers that DeAndre Johnson began receiving two years later.
It would be a stretch for any school to offer a scholarship to a seventh grader, even if they had a dominant skill or starred at a position like quarterback. That’s what makes the younger Johnson’s rise all the more remarkable: He doesn’t even know where he’ll end up playing in high school.
So far, Tyreke has played at quarterback, running back or in the defensive backfield. He could even be a wide receiver. He’s a great athlete, but that’s about all anyone can confirm at this point.
Still, MaxPreps reported that Tyeke Johnson is truly on the precipice of a monumental recruiting breakthrough. No position player has ever received a Division I scholarship offer while in the seventh grade, with quarterback David Sills the lone seventh grader to receive scholarship attention.
That could all change with Tyreke, who is reportedly already receiving major recruiting interest from the likes of Florida State, LSU, Miami, Ohio State and Clemson.
Those are big names for a player as young as Tyreke, though his middle school coach is confident that he will eventually more than reach the high acclaim he’s already attracting.
"He's just a good kid. He's a kid that, honestly, you could see this kid in the Heisman Trophy race,” Trinity Christian football coach Verlon Dorminey told MaxPreps. “He's that type of kid. He's somebody's poster child for a program. He's somebody you want out front, portraying what your program really is.
"If he doesn't come out of the spring with an offer, I'll be surprised."
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