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Dec. 23—By Katherine Fominykh — Kfominykh@baltsun.com
PUBLISHED:December 23, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.| UPDATED:December 23, 2023 at 10:01 a.m.
Junior Malik Washington squeezed his eyes shut and recalled all 18 schools from memory.
“Not in order,” he said quickly. Virginia Tech. Maryland. Penn State. James Madison. Duke. Oregon. Texas A&M. Illinois. Virginia. Syracuse. Western Michigan, West Virginia. Toledo. Charlotte. Temple. Rutgers. Marshall. Arkansas. Boston College.
He keeps their logos of all the Division I college football teams that offered him in his phone. There will be more.
His Archbishop Spalding uniform has a frayed gash at one shoulder — he won’t fix it. It’s his “aura,” he joked. How else would anyone recognize him?
To the world that’s becoming more aware of Washington every day, he is a four-star pro-style quarterback from a very good football program in Maryland that’s now won two-straight conference titles. He’s the player who added another 2,093 yards to his over 5,000-yard cache alongside 21 touchdowns, earned his second Rhodes Trophy, MIAA A Conference Player of the Year and Capital Gazette Football Player of the Year honors.
He’s the recruit announcing his top five on his birthday, Jan. 4, and his final pick likely around May.
Make no mistake, he is all of those things in himself, too. He’d decided to take his football path seriously between seventh and eighth grade. He never talks about the NFL with his coaches — it’s his “hope.” He’s dreamed of hearing his name and “Heisman” together.
But he is also the 17-year-old who pulled a dystopian novel from his backpack and talked excitedly about the synopsis. He’s the kid who peeled the ceiling of his mother’s car when he thought she wasn’t looking, and now the older brother who lovingly shows pictures of his baby sibling and his fresh first cornrows. He…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/capital-gazette-2023-county-football-170500048.html
Author : Baltimore Sun
Publish date : 2023-12-23 17:05:00
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