Checking in With Future Cavalier Metheny
Once again, the state of Virginia is home to several top-ranked quarterback prospects and one of the better ones is Sherando's own Ross Metheny. A soon to be four-year starter for the Warriors, Metheny has been nothing short of remarkable during his time at Sherando. Compiling 2,207 yards and 24 touchdowns last year, Metheny came within one game of capturing a Division 4 state title. In fact, Metheny has only lost two regular season games in his whole career and holds a 33-5 record as a starter.
So it may have been no surprise to anyone to see Metheny become highly sought after by numerous Division I-A schools this offseason. With a very precise and strong arm, not to mention his great mobility, Metheny is what you call a can't-miss prospect. During the spring, the Sherando signal-caller decided to commit early, and announce he was going to play for UVA next year.
Just last week, Metheny went down to UVA for their one-day camp where he turned in a very impressive performance.
"It went really well," said Metheny of the one-day camp. "It was a great experience for me to be able to get down there and cut it loose and throw the football around a little bit and being able to work with some other guys."
One of the benefits, Metheny added, of being down there was learning more from his future coaches, namely quarterback coach and offensive coordinator Mike Groh.
"Definitely being there and getting instruction from coach Mike was something to look forward to. I got to see how he coaches and that kind of thing," said Metheny. "It's good to continue to build all those relationships with the coaches."
Metheny said he did get to meet a lot of prospective UVA commits, a lot of whom are undecided at this point. Is he trying to actively recruit them to be a Cavalier as well?
"Haha, I do my best," remarked Metheny. "We've got a great class already and we have a handful of scholarships left, so hopefully we can land some key guys, but you know, this '09 class, we're real excited to play together and get to work."
UVA is in fact putting together a very solid 2009 recruiting class. Other local stars committed to Charlottesville school are Liberty's Corey Lillard and Centreville's Luke Bowanko, who are respectively ranked as Gameday's #5 and #10 best area prospects. Add in four-star commits Quintin Hunter and Dominique Wallace to the list of highly publicized UVA commits, and it's quite safe to assume Metheny will be surrounded by plenty of talent for the future.
One local talent Metheny did have the chance to meet was starting quarterback Peter Lalich.
"I didn't realize how big that kid was, he's huge," said Metheny. "He's tall, he's built well, and when I went to go shake his hand, his hand almost ate mine."
Lalich, a local star for West Springfield High School, was a four-star prospect and Elite 11 participant and soon became one of the most sought after quarterbacks in the country. As a true sophomore, Lalich has already been thrust into the starter's role during this offseason.
"He's our starting quarterback for UVA, so I'm looking forward to hoping to learn from him," said Metheny. "I got to watch him throw and he's just got a rocket of an arm. So I've got a lot of respect for the guy."
As for now, Metheny mentioned he's very focused on his senior year for Sherando and is just happy to get the recruiting process out of the way.
"This time last year, I was camp-hopping all across the East Coast," said Metheny. "Now being committed, I don't have to do that anymore. It clears up a lot of time for me. I get to go down to UVA and spend some time with the coaches down there. Other than that, this summer is very Sherando-focused."
In last year's state championship game, which resulted in a blowout loss to Amherst, Metheny never made it past the first half. Suffering a broken leg, Metheny had to sit and watch his team's season come to a close as he never factored into the contest much. It's certainly one game that didn't sit well at all with anyone from Sherando, and it's driven Metheny to work extra hard for 2008.
"The last game of the year left a sour taste in everyone's mouth," said Metheny. "Even though [the season] was successful, but you know, just the way that last game ended, we're just excited to get after it."
Sherando opens up the season on September 5th at Musselman (WV) and while Metheny appears poised and ready for UVA, he still has some unfinished business to take care before he heads off to Charlottesville.
For questions or comments regarding Northern Virginia recruiting, please contact, me, Derek LeComte, at GamedayRecruits@aol.com
