Colorado offers Upland trio; RB Abron commits
Upland's football season may be over but the team isn't lacking for action. In the last week, one player has committed, one has de-committed and two others have received scholsrship offers.
Fresh off a 1,750-yard, 33-touchdown senior season, running back Donta Abron verbally committed to Colorado on Sunday, according to Upland head coach Tim Salter, after returning from a recruiting trip to Boulder, Colo., to visit the campus along with teammates Christian Powell and Marques Mosley. All three were offered scholarships by Colorado, but it was Abron who made a pledge, choosing the Buffaloes over offers from Idaho, New Mexico, San Diego State, San Jose State and New Mexico State. Colorado offensive coordinator and running backs coach Eric Bieniemy had no small part in luring Abron to Boulder.
"There's a lot of excitement on that new coaching staff at Colorado," Salter said. "I think the fact that Eric Bieniemy was the running back coach at UCLA when Maurice Jones-Drew was the running backs coach for Adrian Peterson with the Vikings had a lot to do with Donta committing."
Powell, a fullback/defensive end and Mosley, a defensive back, are both considering Nebraska. Powell has narrowed his list to Texas A&M, Washington, Nebraska and Colorado.
Upland receiver Kenny Lawler de-committed from Arizona State last week after a torrid run through the playoffs included 490 yards and seven TDs in three games. The 6-foot-3 receiver has 12 offers, including Cal, Michigan State, UCLA, Nebraska, Washington, Arizona, Colorado and Arizona State.
Mosley, who has offers from Oregon State, San Jose State and Colorado, will likely be offered by Nebraska if the dominos fall a certain way.
"(Nebraska) told me they have an offer pending (for Mosley)," Salter said. "They offered a guy from Louisiana but they think they might lose him to LSU and that would open up a spot in the defensive backfield."
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About Clay
Clay Fowler has been covering high school sports for six years in California and Texas. He was born in Dallas, attended the University of Texas and worked in Central Texas before joining the Daily Bulletin staff in 2006.
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Congrads to all the Upland superstars, after a huge year in football. Upland showed they were stacked with highly skilled players, but ultimately size killed them. Against Vista Murrieta, it showed. But never the less, this Upland squad will go down as the best ever. We may even see 1 or 2 of these guys go to the NFL. As for next year, alot of good players are returning Dukes, Mathis, Romine, Esther, Johnson, Batiste, Romero, etc. Although no superstar receiver or running back has emerged yet, watch for a possible transfer to turn out huge for Upland. I would tell Salter, not to worry about replacing Lawler, Mosley, Abron, and Powell, let others fill in their spots. But really concentrate on building the team around Nate Romine this year, and let him do his thing like Gavett at CC. Upland should be a strong playoff team next year, but Vista Murrieta, Norco, Charter Oak, Los Osos, and Santiago are going to be beast next year.
You need to answer me this, if Salter is such a good coach and Upland is such a good program, why is it that everything has to revolve around "transfers"? There are over 4000 students on that campus, it is a shame that the football boosters need to buy their wins. Although is doesn't look like it has bought them any class after what those boys did to VM locker room after having their a*s' handed to them by a bigger and better VM football team. Good luck Upland on stealing another running back or reciever next year, cause your going to need it. RC is just going to reload and take their place back atop of the Baseline league.
@ Jackass, Actually there are just over 3,400 students that attend Upland High School. For all the haters of the Baseline League, business is cut-throat these days. Think, if you’re a parent of a highly talented student, you would want to give your kid the best chance possible at a full scholarship. Right? Coach Salter does not need to recruit, parents send him their kids on a yearly basis now. Its all about the Scholarship. Why send your kid to a coach that cant win games let alone guide your child to scholarship. More and more parents from Alta Loma and Chaffey high are sending their kid to Salter and Baiz, although coach Baiz needs to get with the program and load up his team to 80-100 players. Come on, where playing in the Inland Division now. Charter Oak who only has about 1,500 students, receives many transfers based on their coach’s record. Same with Centennial and Vista Murrieta, no need to recruit, parents are taking the initiative on the transfer. Don’t hate, just the way things are now, bottom line!
The reality of tranfers in high school sports is clearly keeping the "rich - rich". The Uplands, CC, RCHS, and the like in the world are going to stay on top. The issue is this, if CIF is going to allow all of these transfers, which i dont really care either way, they should at least let the school who are being shopped, out of the leagues that are killing them. As far as Baseline goes, Alta Loma and Glendora just dont fit, so why force them to play in league where they only compete in one or 2 sports. Why not let Glendora compete in the SGV, where they belong and move Alta Loma to the Baldy, switch with Colony, where boths schools fit much better.
As far as big schools and winning have everything to do with recruiting, well that is what these coacheds are telling these parents to get their kids. Bottom line is, if your kid can play and if he has the grades, he is goinvg to be found by someone. Being 8-2 your senior year is not going to get u a D-1 scholarship, hard work and good grades are.
I think 2011-12 is going the be more of the same, alot of UHS and RCHS at the top, the question is, who wants that 3rd playoff spot.