With No Fall Season, JMU Commits Ponder What's Next
Zach Horton shouldn’t have to choose between the two, but even he knows he’ll have to.
The Virginia High School League’s Wednesday announcement of its potential plans for a return to competition – none of which include playing football this fall – put the Northside (Roanoke) tight end, a James Madison commit, in a quandary.
He said he previously planned to enroll in January at JMU to participate in 2021 spring drills with the Dukes. But because two of the three possible models the VHSL will vote on later this month involve pushing its football season to the spring, Horton is rethinking his initial idea of beginning college sooner than most freshmen do.
No prep sports have been played in Virginia since March due to the pandemic.
“That was the original plan,” Horton, who committed to JMU in May, told the Daily News-Record on Wednesday, “but I personally want to play my senior season. If I enroll early I won’t be able to play my senior season if it does start later and I’d rather play my senior season than enroll early. I hope the JMU coaches will understand that and I haven’t really talked to them about it yet, but I talked to my parents already about it.”
Of the VHSL options, Model 2 simply swaps the fall sports and spring sports seasons, moving the football calendar to the months of March, April and May. Model 3 runs a condensed football season from Feb. 14 through May 1. Model 1 keeps the high school sports year as is, but doesn’t permit football to be played in the fall since it’s considered a high-risk activity.
“As long as I get to play a senior season and then get to JMU, that’d be nice,” Horton said. “It could be in February. I don’t really care about the cold. That doesn’t bother me and I’d think most athletes would want to play in the cold, so it’s not so hot. But I’d be fine with that if that happens.
“So even if it’s in February I’d want to play my senior season, but I’d say if there’s not a senior season at all then I’d go ahead and enroll early.”
Horton, a three-star prospect by Rivals.com, was an All-Blue Ridge District first-team selection on offense and defense last season and earned Co-Blue Ridge District Defensive Player of the Year honors for his 28 tackles for loss and 15 sacks as a junior.
He is one of five JMU pledges to call the Commonwealth home and play high school football in the state. Battlefield (Haymarket) linebacker Matt Binkowski, Stone Bridge (Ashburn) linebacker Skylar Martin, Prince George (Prince George) offensive lineman Jaelin Montgomery and Warwick (Newport News) safety Messiah Russell are the others.
Binkowski faces the same predicament Horton does.
On Thursday, Binkowski said he still intends to arrive in Harrisonburg for the spring semester and practice with the Dukes come March even it means missing out on a senior season in the spring. Before the coronavirus, the most an early enrollee might have had to give up was a night at the prom or other traditional end-of-year happenings.
“I still have to talk it over with my parents,” Binkowski said. “But that’s the first thing on my mind right now, getting to JMU.”
An All-Cedar Run District first-team choice in 2019, Binkowski had 25 other scholarship offers before JMU offered and he committed to the Dukes in May.
“It’s obviously heartbreaking and it just sucks,” Binkowski said of the fast-crashing reality of probably not playing a senior football campaign. “But you’ve got to keep working for the goals you have ahead because there’s nothing you can do to change the decision, so I’m going to move past it. It sucks, but I’ll just keep working.”
Both Binkowski and Horton have been running and lifting on their own, they said, in preparation for whatever comes next. And Montgomery said Prince George had already started organized workouts for players on a twice-per-week basis.
Montgomery gave his commitment to JMU last month.
“My coach said even if our season is in the spring we’ll keep doing the workouts,” Montgomery said, “just to get out of the house and get some fresh air.”
The offensive lineman said he wasn’t planning on enrolling early at JMU, so he’d gladly take a spring season to finish out his prep career. He said he hopes it happens, too, for some of his teammates who may not play football after high school and others on the Prince George roster who could possibly earn scholarship offers with fresh game tape to provide college coaches with for the next recruiting cycles.
“I kind of saw it coming,” Montgomery said of the VHSL’s announcement. “And that’s one of the reasons I made my decision to commit kind of early, so I’m not too worried.
“But not playing football in the fall will be different, I guess. But I want them to start it back up in the spring to have some type of a senior season. If I don’t, then it’s OK, but I’m more worried about my teammates that may need that opportunity.”
After Russell committed to JMU this past weekend, he said showing he could play well against quality competition in high school games in the 757 has prepared him to play at JMU and did help him earn scholarship offers.
“It definitely has gotten me ready to play in college,” Russell said. “All these guys I’m playing against are going to play on the next level as well, so it’s coming at each other every game and then also being able to help each other off the field as well when it’s not a game day.”
On July 27, the VHSL executive committee will vote and ultimately pick one of the three models presented earlier this week.
If he’s played final high school snap, Binkowski said, “I’ve loved playing with every single one of my teammates and both coaching staffs I played for and I loved every second of it.”