All-Star OL Selects Coastal Carolina
Bennettsville (SC) Marlboro County has been the hotbed of top high school players for
several years under the development of head coach Dean Boyd, and this year's class
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produced one of the top offensive linemen in the state. SCVarsity.com All-State player
Jaquan Ridges ended his recruiting this week with a verbal commitment after only one
official visit.
href="http://scvarsity.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=52135">Jaquan Ridges
made his recruiting process a very short one by verbally committing to David
Bennett and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers after his one and only official visit this
past weekend.
The recruiting process of the towering Bulldog right tackle was a series of ups and
downs. Newberry was probably the most interested in trying to sign the 6'5" Ridges in
the early stages. Ridges did not receive significant interest from the Division 1-A
schools, nor did the Shrine Bowl staff select him. But once college coaches saw him at
practice for the North-South game, Ridges' fortunes drastically and suddenly improved, and
Marlboro County head coach Dean Boyd started fielding a lot of interest about his right
tackle
According to Boyd, Ridges' scholastic history could be a lesson for many South Carolina
prep players. Boyd said, "his effort and grades were very average during his freshman
and sophomore year, but fortunately Ridges didn't wait "too long' to get serious and
really picked it up." Ridges has raised his GPA on the core classes to a very
respectable 2.70 with another full semester remaining.
According to Ridges, the decision to commit to The Chants was simple. Ridges said,
"I just felt extremely comfortable with their players and coaches. My mother did,
too."