The Pahokee Two of Wake Forest's football recruiting class for 2010 became the Pahokee Three Redux with Thursday's commitment from Antonio Ford.
Ford, according to his mother, Gloria Wilson, plans to join high-school teammates Zachary Allen and Merrill Noel at Wake Forest, marking the second time this decade that three players from Pahokee High School in South Florida have committed to the Deacons in the same class. In 2004, Alphonso Smith, D.J. Boldin and Antonio Wilson all arrived from Pahokee High.
Ford is a 6-3, 260-pound lineman who chose Wake Forest over Oklahoma State, Tennessee and West Virginia. He is expected to play on the defensive line.
Wilson, a data processor at Pahokee High, said that her son made two trips to Wake Forest, most recently last weekend for the game against Miami.
"He's really impressed by the coaches and the things they said to him, the school and the surroundings," Wilson said. "It was just a whole lot of factors that really persuaded him.
"The (business) program he's interested in, this last meeting we had a chance to visit the classroom, and we even talked to one of the professors. It was so much the academic part of it, along with the sports part of it, and he decided that Wake Forest was for him."
Wilson said that there was no package deal for all three players. Allen is a 6-2, 200-pound linebacker who chose Wake Forest over Michigan, Miami, West Virginia, Tennessee and Mississippi. Noel is a 5-8, 170-pound cornerback who originally committed to Florida State before reconsidering and committing to Wake Forest.
"I don't think that was a big factor," Wilson said. "They're classmates here at the high school, but I don't think it was a case where, ‘I have to go there because Zach is,' or ‘I have to go there because Merrill is.' They're not that tight.
"But I guess over the years, they probably will become tight once they start at Wake Forest."
dcollins@wsjournal.com. | 727-7323
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