Ad blocker detected: Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker on our website.
Here's the only signee that slipped through our cracks ...
Larry Claiborne – DB, 6-1, 175, Ringgold, Va./GW Danville High School
Two-year letterwinner at defensive back … finished his junior year with 38 solo tackles … posted 58 solo stops as a senior, plus seven interceptions and seven pass break-ups … all-district and all-region first-team honoree as a senior … also named to the all-state second team during his senior year … honor roll student.
Last edited by Sly Fox on February 7th, 2007, 7:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
from the danville fishwrap....a good read on our new signee.
GW's Claiborne opts for Liberty
By JEFF PATTERSON
Register & Bee sports writer
February 8, 2007
DANVILLE - There are three questions every college football coach asks when scouting a prospective student-athlete.
Can he play?
Can he make the grades?
Does he have the kind of character we are looking for?
When the Liberty University coaching staff inquired about Larry Claiborne last fall, George Washington coach Dan Newell had no trouble answering all three with an emphatic yes.
After a stellar senior season, in which he helped lead the Eagles to an 8-3 record, Claiborne signed his national letter of intent on Wednesday to play for the Flames. He will receive a full scholarship to study business management, and will play safety for a Liberty team coming off a 6-5 season.
“It’s an answered prayer, that’s what it is,” Claiborne’s mother Rita said.
A second-team all-state selection in 2006, Claiborne topped four defensive categories for the Western Valley District champions: solo tackles (52), fumble recoveries (four), interceptions (six) and pass breakups (seven).
“He’s a blue-chipper,” Newell said.
After visiting the Liberty campus on Dec. 10, his only visit, there was no uncertainty regarding Claiborne’s future collegiate home.
“When I got up there, that’s when I knew,” he said. “I felt like it was a good fit for me, and my family felt the same way.
“… I really didn’t want to go too far, and I didn’t want to be too close. I felt if I was too close, knowing me, I would come back too much. And I didn’t want to be too far in case of an emergency - that’s why Liberty is a perfect spot for me.”
Even though he was the defensive captain, Claiborne received little attention until after several breakout games - mainly his game-clinching interception return in a victory over Amherst on Sept. 15.
“Every coach that I talked to from Liberty always asked about the Amherst game,” Claiborne said. “Every coach, they asked about the tape and they wanted to see the tape.”
“The standout performances got him noticed,” Newell said. “Then the films that were sent out in October sealed the deal. He became the prospect he probably should have been entering his senior year.”
But it was his performance off the field that truly had his coach singing his praise.
Along with several of his teammates and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Claiborne volunteered to give up his spring break last year to help rebuild homes in hurricane-ravaged Biloxi, Miss.
“That changed everything,” Newell said. “… The kid goes on a mission trip for a week during his spring break to rebuild homes from Hurricane Katrina. You don’t have to say a whole lot else.”
- By Dalegarz1
- By Purple Haize