HARRISONBURG – Justin Ritter is ready to finally wrap up the recruiting process – even as it comes more than a month after National Signing Day.

“I know it’ll be sometime this week,” the future James Madison specialist said.

This past Thursday, Ritter gave his verbal commitment to the Dukes when he announced his plans via Twitter, and on Monday he said he is going to sign his Letter of Intent as soon as he receives the paperwork later this week from JMU recruiting coordinator Mike Shanahan.

Ritter joins Madison’s recruiting class of 2019 as the lone kicker-punter in the group.

The Oakdale (Ijamsville, Md.) product said he earned 11 different offers – a mix of partial scholarship offers and preferred walk-on opportunities at the FBS and FCS levels – before deciding on the Dukes, who offered him a partial scholarship. He said of his other offers, he considered walk-on opportunities with Penn State and Kent State most.

“It was a long and stressful process for me and my family, but I wouldn’t change a thing,” Ritter said. “I knew something would work out for me. I just had to keep my head down and keep working hard.

“But, I knew something was going to work out and I’m really, really happy with the way it has worked out and I’m really excited to get started at JMU.”

At Oakdale, he handled field goals, kickoffs and punts.

Ritter said he converted 60 of his 64 extra-point attempts, five of his six field-goal tries and booted touchbacks on 47 of his 61 kickoffs as a senior this past fall.

“About 75 to 80 percent of his kickoffs were touchbacks,” Oakdale coach Kurt Stein said. “So he crushes that and has unlimited range. But, he can punt the ball 70 yards, so for kickoffs, he’s a touchback guy and for punts, he can absolutely boom ‘em and they’re high. They hang forever.

“And field goals, I’ve seen him make them deep in practice, but I think the longest he had in a game is 42 yards, but to be honest, he didn’t get a lot of opportunity kicking field goals because we didn’t get stopped down there often.”

Stein said Ritter is a better athlete than most specialists, too. Ritter plays on the Oakdale baseball team as a third baseman and second baseman, and could’ve done more for Stein on the football team if it wasn’t for risk of injury.

“I mean, he’s a 5-star recruit as a kicker and punter,” Stein said. “I haven’t seen one as good as him at the high school level in a long time.

“… But he was just too valuable to us and our field position game to risk him playing some linebacker or some receiver because he had done that at times in practice, and he could have done that for us and played, and he was an OK linebacker or receiver, but he was as good of a kicker or punter that you’ll find.”

Ritter and Stein said JMU became more heavily involved when first-year Dukes coach Curt Cignetti took over for former coach Mike Houston this past December.

Shanahan was Ritter’s lead recruiter at Elon before following Cignetti to Harrisonburg. Ritter took a February visit to JMU and met with Cignetti, Shanahan and special teams coordinator Grant Cain.

“I liked how well [Cain] treated my family,” Ritter said, “and the way he accepted me and brought me in. He was just a nice guy and he told me just what he was interested in with wanting a kickoff guy and wanting a punter that’s straight up.

“He told me his vision and I like a coach that’s honest and upfront with me, and he seems like a guy I wanted to be around for all four years.”

Ritter said former Oakdale star and JMU junior running back Percy Agyei-Obese also played a role. Agyei-Obese visited Oakdale last week to talk to Ritter.

“Percy has been a huge role model,” Ritter said. “… He taught me how to work hard and how to work right. I just can’t wait to work with him like the old days.”