Cardinal expand connection with Baltimore school
The pipeline between the Gilman School in Baltimore and Stanford is flowing again. Thomas Booker, a 6-foot-5, 290pound defensive end, is the latest player from Gilman to commit verbally to the Cardinal.
Booker, a four-star recruit, is expected to sign with Stanford on Wednesday, the first day of the three-day early signing period instituted this year in the Football Bowl Subdivision. There are three more athletes in that four-star category coming to the Farm: Alabama quarterback Jack West, Georgia cornerback Kendall Williamson and Southern California wide receiver Michael Wilson.
Stanford has 11 verbal commits, according to the recruiting services, and head coach David Shaw said he expects between seven and nine of them to sign Wednesday. Others are still waiting to be accepted, in which case they would sign during the regular signing period, which runs Feb. 7 through April 1.
Booker will join two other Gilman alumni at Stanford, running back Dorian Maddox and offensive lineman Devery Hamilton, both of whom arrived in 2016. Besides being a highly rated player, Booker took summer classes at Stanford before his junior year.
The Cardinal offered a scholarship to West (who’s 6-foot-4) before he even started a high school game as a sophomore. An aspiring politician, he might follow the route of New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a former Stanford tight end. (Sen. Booker is no relation to Stanford’s aforementioned recruit.)
Williamson, likely to play safety at Stanford, told Rivals.com that he ranks 25th academically in a class of 835 at Brookwood High in Snellville, Ga.
Wilson was the leading receiver for ChaminadeWest Hills as a junior and senior and was a league MVP. His reaction to getting a Stanford offer on the phone in the highschool locker room, along with his teammates’ ecstatic embrace, was recorded on video and is featured in a Los Angeles Times report.
Another intriguing player is tight end TaeVeon Le of Corona Del Mar in Newport Beach (Orange County). Assuming he is admitted, he will be a walk-on in the summer. He is a Vietnamese American whose mother escaped Saigon as an infant in 1975, put herself through law school, became a lawyer and raised two children by herself. Lund transfers: Freshman running back Sione Lund is transferring to Utah, he announced via Twitter. He apparently wants to be close to his home in Salt Lake City.