Wow. Congratulations to the Wildcat family for landing the most highly touted recruit in five years with the commitment of Patrick Ward. Ward, a 6-6, 295 lbs OT from New Lennox, IL (Providence) is a rare four-star Rivals.com prospect (only the second 4-star the Cats have secured this decade) and puts an exclamation point in the Northwestern 2009 recruiting class. Pat Fitzgerald's team landed three of their "big four" - Ward joins buddies Mike Trumpy and Evan Watkins as highly touted Chicago area recruits. Only Glenbard West's Chris Watt opted out of Evanston, home of his big brother, and decided to go to Notre Dame.
Yes, Patrick Ward is expected to be an instant impact kind of player (despite the fact he'll likely redshirt), but in the bigger picture Ward's commitment sends a message to the schools recruiting Illinois - Northwestern is officially a major threat. Ward chose the Cats over a truckload of teams including Big Ten foes like Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan State. He chose us over recruiting rival Stanford and arguably the top team in the nation, Missouri.
I'm never sure what planet the few diehards we have live on as they seem to think Northwestern is on even footing with the above mentioned teams when it comes to recruiting simply because of academics. When you see embarassments like the less than 10,000 fans in attendance on a bad weather day, and a half empty stadium every September, I am amazed at how well we recruit. What a great way to cap-off a great weekend. Welcome aboard Patrick and may you be part of the class that becomes known for paving the way for record-setting sell-out crowds.
Click here for the Rivals.com release.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment