PiPress: Buildup to 2013 is on for Cretin-Derham Hall star

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"As a seventh-grader, Onwualu made another major decision: to devote his life to becoming an elite-level student and football player."

Love that the writer put student before football player. Not surprising with a brother at Wharton. Sounds like an outstanding kid. Would love to see him wearing the Maroon and Gold.

Very solid article.
 

Looks like a great kid. I think he ends up in gold, but not Gopher gold. Hope Kill and company can convince him to buck the trend.
 



Breakin' The Plane said:
Looks like a great kid. I think he ends up in gold, but not Gopher gold. Hope Kill and company can convince him to buck the trend.
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They convinced more then a few players this year to "buck the trend". Obviously in past years guys like McDonald were long gone. I think with Kill times are a changin!
 


Obviously he's good player with all of the offers he's gotten this early, but someone will have to explain to me what makes him special as a football player. I went to one CDH game this year and didn't even know he was on the field.
 

John Galt said:
Obviously he's good player with all of the offers he's gotten this early, but someone will have to explain to me what makes him special as a football player. I went to one CDH game this year and didn't even know he was on the field.
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NM
 



Parski1 said:
They convinced more then a few players this year to "buck the trend". Obviously in past years guys like McDonald were long gone. I think with Kill times are a changin!
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I was referring to the number of CDH kids that end up at Notre Dame.
 

John Galt said:
Obviously he's good player with all of the offers he's gotten this early, but someone will have to explain to me what makes him special as a football player. I went to one CDH game this year and didn't even know he was on the field.
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I'm not trying to be rude, but if you didn't notice him, you weren't watching closely enough. He was the best RB and best WR on the team (best player on the entire offense). He's legitimately Big 10 fast, he's already 200 lbs, he's tall, he has great hands and he's elusive. The hiccup with him is that he didn't play one position and the Cretin passing attack wasn't very good. With his grades and unique skill set, he's going to have offers from everywhere.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
I was referring to the number of CDH kids that end up at Notre Dame.
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Yep, that's the tough thing when schools like Notre Dame come calling. A lot of Cretin students are very used to a smaller catholic school setting. It's nothing religious, it's just what they and their parents are used to. Most of them had a great experience at CDH and think a school like Notre Dame is the college equivalent of CDH. It's why you see a ton of Cretin kids go to St. Thomas and St. Johns after HS.

I really do think the U has a chance with him though. But the toughest barrier is Notre Dame (for most CDH athletes).
 

I was at the Stillwater/CDH game, and Kendrik Brewster got most of the carries and had a long TD run. I don't think JO got more than 5 carries and caught more than 2 passes. Just look at the numbers listed in the article: 549 yards rushing, 8 TDs; 27 catches for 428 yards and 5 TDs. Hardly the stuff of legend. But I'll take your word Bob, you obviously follow CDH pretty closely.
 



John Galt said:
I was at the Stillwater/CDH game, and Kendrik Brewster got most of the carries and had a long TD run. I don't think JO got more than 5 carries and caught more than 2 passes. Just look at the numbers listed in the article: 549 yards rushing, 8 TDs; 27 catches for 428 yards and 5 TDs. Hardly the stuff of legend. But I'll take your word Bob, you obviously follow CDH pretty closely.
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No, I hear you. I didn't mean it like "you don't know anything" when I said that, I meant it more like "you might not have known who to look for". Kendrick got a lot of publicity coming into the season, but most people around the CDH team knew James was a better all around football player.

James did catch a TD pass against Stillwater, but yeah, Brewster had a bigger game.
 


Tim Riggins said:
Runs a 4.53 40, gotta like that!
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Not to stir that tired old debate, but I believe his was electronically timed at that Madden Camp (hence all of the offers flying in after that camp).
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
I was referring to the number of CDH kids that end up at Notre Dame.
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that was more true in the past when rob ianello was still at notre dame as their recruiting coordinator and WR's coach. he was the main guy with connections at CDH (and in minnesota) in terms of recruiting. mostly because of the time he spent coaching at wisconsin prior to notre dame. he left notre dame a couple years ago and took at HC job with akron. and he has since been fired from the HC job at akron.

i don't think you will see as many CDH guys or minnesota guys in general going to notre dame as we did over the last 6 to 7 years.
 

Seems like a very impressive kid academically as does the whole family, brother going to Wharton
 

If Bob says we have a chance, that's good enough for me. Hopefully Kill continues to work his in state magic. We could have some pretty pettay prettttay good WRs.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yep, that's the tough thing when schools like Notre Dame come calling. A lot of Cretin students are very used to a smaller catholic school setting. It's nothing religious, it's just what they and their parents are used to. Most of them had a great experience at CDH and think a school like Notre Dame is the college equivalent of CDH. It's why you see a ton of Cretin kids go to St. Thomas and St. Johns after HS.

I really do think the U has a chance with him though. But the toughest barrier is Notre Dame (for most CDH athletes).
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I would think that that would be a factor for some, wouldn't you?
 


mnsports1 said:
I would think that that would be a factor for some, wouldn't you?
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Yeah, you're right. For some kids there probably is a religious element to it as well. I just think for the majority of kids at Cretin who prefer the private/Catholic colleges, it's not a religious thing. A good percentage of the kids aren't even Catholic.
 

supadupafly said:
that was more true in the past when rob ianello was still at notre dame as their recruiting coordinator and WR's coach. he was the main guy with connections at CDH (and in minnesota) in terms of recruiting. mostly because of the time he spent coaching at wisconsin prior to notre dame. he left notre dame a couple years ago and took at HC job with akron. and he has since been fired from the HC job at akron.

i don't think you will see as many CDH guys or minnesota guys in general going to notre dame as we did over the last 6 to 7 years.
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I think that is largely a misconception that is floating around (i've heard it before).

Ianello did a good recruiting Cretin kids, but Notre Dame has had quite a few before Ianello....

Ianello was hired at Notre Dame in 2005.

Ryan Harris - 2003
Marcus Freeman - 2002
Rashon Powers-Neal - 2001

During Ianello's time (2005-2009)

Michael Floyd
Matt Carufel

Notre Dame was recruiting Cretin successfully before Ianello.
 

JackiO said:
Article on him from two weeks back. Will be interesting to see what happens to him but Michael Floyd was one of his Brothers Best friends and James works out with Michael all off-season.

http://www.irishsportsdaily.com/recruiting/notre-dame-football-recruiting/6382-onwualu-talks-nd-offer-visit
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Not that it matters, but a similar thing could be said about Shady Salamon. They are probably using Floyd as a reference because he's a much more publicized athlete, but Shady was really tight with those guys in HS (and by all accounts still is). I think James will have Shady in his ear a little too.
 

saw plenty of east metro this past fall.. i also didn't notice this kid..

best player was junius ? from Woodbury.. best open field runner i've seen in the HS ranks in some time. but he was hurt for the 2nd half of the season. three year starter.

if this CDH kid was so great, he should have had monster numbers this year.. CDH was down this year for thier standards.
 

dboy said:
saw plenty of east metro this past fall.. i also didn't notice this kid..

best player was junius ? from Woodbury.. best open field runner i've seen in the HS ranks in some time. but he was hurt for the 2nd half of the season. three year starter.

if this CDH kid was so great, he should have had monster numbers this year.. CDH was down this year for thier standards.
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Huh? They went undefeated in the regular season and won their conference. They then went on to make it to the State semi's and got beaten up by Wayzata. It wasn't a "great" CDH team, but it sure wasn't a down year (they've only won 2 State Championships in their entire history).

As far as not noticing James, it's partially on you. He wasn't a huge name, so I don't blame you for not noticing him, but it sounds like you followed Woodbury pretty closely, he did score 2 TDs in that game. Combined, Onwualu had close to 1000 yards and 13 TDs, playing about 70% of his snaps at WR, on a team without a super effective passing game. How closely are you watching if someone who is going for 85 yards and over a TD a game, goes unnoticed, especially on the best team in the area (if you want to call CDH East Metro).

Kendrick Brewster is a good football player, so James was primarily a WR and Safety. It was more of a product of Brewster being a better RB than whoever the backup WR would have been. It was the way for Cretin to get the best players on the field.

As a JR, he was the best offensive football player on a top 5 team in the State.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Huh? They went undefeated in the regular season and won their conference. They then went on to make it to the State semi's and got beaten up by Wayzata. It wasn't a "great" CDH team, but it sure wasn't a down year (they've only won 2 State Championships in their entire history).

As far as not noticing James, it's partially on you. He wasn't a huge name, so I don't blame you for not noticing him, but it sounds like you followed Woodbury pretty closely, he did score 2 TDs in that game. Kendrick Brewster is a good football player, so James was primarily a WR and Safety. It was more of a product of Brewster being a better RB than whoever the backup WR would have been. It was the way for Cretin to get the best players on the field.

As a JR, he was the best offensive football player on a top 5 team in the State.
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Bob, the false assumption you make with your response is that dboy knows anything about anything. He doesn't.
 

Have to chime in on this; I saw him in the section final against a decent Eagan team and he came in when Brewster went down with an injury. I believe he went for 150 plus and some long runs, and was very impressive.
 

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