Woodberry Forest Safety C.J. Prosise pledges to Notre Dame
by Wade Perry
Posted June 3, 2011 7:56 pm
C.J. Prosise, class of 2012, Notre Dame football, Woodberry Forest football
Photo courtesy of VirginiaPreps.com
FinestPreps promised to deliver you some of the top high school football prospects in all the land!
Today we venture down to the state of Virginia to talk about one of the most gifted athletes in the state!
He plays for a private school in northern Virginia that has seen a resurgence in the past couple of years thanks to head coach Clint Alexander.
Over the past few years, Alexander has sent some of his players to some of the top college football programs all over the country–UCLA (Aramide Olaniyan), Stanford (Ed Reynolds), Richmond (Kendall Gaskins), Penn State (J.T. Hornyak), and Auburn (C.T. Moorman).
Under Alexander’s leadership–Woodberry’s program has catapaulted to unprecedented heights the past few years!
The Woodberry Forest School Tigers (Woodberry Forest, Va.) have captured four straight Virginia Prep League titles in the past four years.
They’ve also earned a number one ranking in the Virginia state private school rankings each of the past three seasons!
That’s not even mentioning the endless amount of football players WFS has sent to play college football the past few seasons!
Who’s the latest gridiron great from Woodberry that will be taking his talents to the Division I-A level?
The class of 2012 prospect we’re spotlighting today recently decided to commit to head coach Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Notre Dame already has reeled in commitments from some of the most talented defensive backs in America in Tee Shepard (Central East) and Ronald Darby (Potomac).
Those two prospects alone give the Fighting Irish one of the most formidable secondaries in America for the 2012 recruiting class.
Well, I’ve got bad news for Notre Dame opponents because their stacked secondary became even more frightening.
Woodberry Forest School safety C.J. Prosise (Woodberry Forest, Va.) pulled the trigger on May 26th and decided he wanted to play his college football in South Bend as well.
The 6’2″, 190 pound safety currently boasts 11 scholarships from a variety of college football programs across America.
Notre Dame, Boston College, Cincinnati, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, Penn State, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Virginia, and Wake Forest all extended scholarship offers to him but in the end it was the Fighting Irish who prevailed in the race.
When you take a look at his highlights below it’s easy to see why Prosise was so highly coveted by a variety of college football programs.
The first thing that jumps out about him is his how dynamic of a kick and punt returner he is on the football field.
Blessed with a 4.59 40 yard dash time, Prosise actually plays much faster than his listed time because of his long strides in the open field.
Last season, he had four returns for touchdowns on special teams en route to landing first team all-state honors as a kick returner.
One of his trademark moves in his highlights is his ability to stop on a dime, allow the defender to blow by him, and completely miss the tackle.
Both as a safety and wide receiver, it’s easy to see that Prosise is blessed with “off-the-chart” ball skills.
As WFS head football coach Clint Alexander so eloquently put it, “C.J. is a special player who attacks the ball in the air.”
His aggressiveness and willingess to go up and snatch the football out of the air is easy to see.
When you combine that with his exceptional hands, well you have yourself a downright lethal combination.
Prosise tormented quarterbacks all across the Virginia Prep League last season and made sure if they threw in his direction, they would pay dearly.
He’s excellent at getting in good position to make a play on a jump ball in a crowd.
As a junior, he racked up 42 tackles and snatched up seven interceptions in landing first team all-state honors at the safety position.
The Petersburg, Va. native is easily one of the most gifted athletes in the state of Virginia.
He’s also a standout for Woodberry’s track team and basketball team.
You can check out a thunderous dunk he throws down over a defender on YouTube.
As a sophomore, Prosise blazed a 22.2 200-meter dash time at the Virginia state finals for the WFS track team.
As a junior, he recently posted a 10.99 (electric timed) 100-meter dash at the state finals.
His high school coach (Clint Alexander) couldn’t have said it any better when he described C.J. as “an amazing athlete.”
His outstanding ability on the football field hasn’t gone unnoticed by numerous recruiting services nationally.
247sports.com currently rates Prosise as a three-star prospect and Scout.com rates him as a three-star prospect as well.
VirginiaPreps.com currently rates Prosise as the 17th best football prospect in the state of Virginia for the 2012 class.
The talented prospect is slated to visit South Bend, Indiana to take a look at the Notre Dame campus this weekend–June 4th.
With the commitment, Prosise became the 8th prospect and the second safety to commit to the Fighting Irish for their 2012 recruiting class.
Notre Dame currently has nine verbal commitments for their 2012 class.
Look for Prosise to make some noise on the gridiron this for the WFS Tigers and in the years to come at Notre Dame!
Wade Peery is the senior writer for FinestPreps.com. He can be reached by e-mail at wadepeery@yahoo.com. All comments and feedback are welcome. You can reach him on Facebook: Wade Hampton Peery or Twitter: @wpeery23. Be sure to check out FinestPreps.com Facebook page and “Like” it if you want to receive FinestPreps updates in your Facebook news feed. Be sure to follow FinestPreps on Twitter @finestpreps.
Check out C.J. Prosise’s junior highlight tape below–courtesy of WFS!
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C.J. Prosise, class of 2012, Notre Dame football, Woodberry Forest football