Blue White Illustrated

BY TIM OWEN Blue White Contributor T 17-year-old prospect Wendy Laurent is looking to grow into a role on the Nittany Lions' offensive front THE LAURENT FILE YOUTH MOVEMENT he circular table could fit six, but only two seats were occupied. In one sat Wendy Laurent, a rising 6-foot- 3, 285-pound lineman from the Hun School in Princeton, N.J. To his imme- diate left sat Mac McWhorter, the newly hired offensive line coach for Penn State. Laurent was on his official visit, eat- ing dinner in the basement of the Nit- tany Lion Inn. He'd been on campus be- fore – for a summer camp a few years earlier – but this visit was different. This time he had a standing scholarship of- fer to play football at Penn State. He had received the offer four days prior to the visit and wanted to personally meet the coaches, find out more about the school, and maybe try out the food before he made the decision that would vastly impact his future. By the time they'd finished dinner, Laurent was very interested in accept- ing McWhorter's invitation to join the Nittany Lions' recruiting class. "I felt like I had a good relationship with him," Laurent said. "He's a cool guy." Three days later, Laurent gave Penn State a verbal commitment, and in February he signed his letter of intent. He is likely to play center or guard for the Nittany Lions. "I thought Coach McWhorter did a real good job with Wendy," said David Dudeck, head coach at Hun. "He was real honest and direct, and he knew right away that he wanted Wendy." Laurent said the sincerity of Penn State's interest played an important role in his decision. That's because few Division I schools showed the same love. Other than Buffalo, Connecticut and Navy, Penn State was the only Football Bowl Subdivision school to ex- tend a scholarship offer. But Dudeck, who has known Laurent since the future Penn State recruit was in elementary school, said the dearth of interest stemmed from a lack of ex- posure, not a perceived lack of talent. 34 M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 2 BY TIM OWEN Blue White Contributor work on perfecting his curve ball than worry about catching a football or tackling a ball carrier. But when he was in eighth grade, a W local football coach stopped by his baseball practice one afternoon to see him in action. "I was actually playing baseball, and the football coach came and asked if I wanted to play [for him]," re- called Wilkerson, a left fielder and pitcher, "so that's when it began." After one year on the junior high team as a defensive end and tight end, Wilk- erson began playing for DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Md., hen he was in middle school, Brent Wilkerson would rather shag fly balls, polish his swing or S T A T I S T I C S Helped the Hun School's offense average 26.4 points per game his senior year. H O N O R S Was named a New Jersey All-Prep selection by The Trentonian. ... Named a two-star recruit by Rivals and a three-star recruit by Scout. Courtesy of Laurent family At Hun, a school that since 1998 has sent 94 prospects to Division I football programs, including 2011 Penn State recruit Anthony Alosi, coaches don't pressure their kids to "go to a million camps in the summer," Dudeck said. Nor do they pay much attention to the online recruiting scene. "We stay away from the Internet," Dudeck said. "We don't get on that too often." But there might have been another reason why Laurent was overlooked. Said Dudeck, "He's a still a baby." At 17, Laurent is about a year younger than most of the students in his class and is still growing. As a jun- ior, he played the guard position despite weighing no more than 240 pounds. A year later, he had added more than 40 pounds, and with the help of Hun as- sistant coach John Law, he was an- choring the team's offensive line. "His body was maturing at the same time, and he's now getting into the weight room," Dudeck said. "He's see- ing huge results and he's always stayed athletic." And the potential for more growth, both physically and fundamentally, may actually be a reason why McWhorter was so fond of Laurent in the first place. "Sometimes you have a kid that's re- ally raw," McWhorter said. "Then he's probably got a bigger upside." Whatever it was, the recruiting process worked out well for Laurent in the end. He's going to be enrolling at the school he always wanted to attend. "It was kind of a dream school for me," said Laurent, whose parents are from Haiti. "Once that offer came around, it was just [a matter of] look- ing at the school academically, football- wise and socially. So it was the right choice." Brent Wilkerson gives up baseball and finds success in a whole new field CHANGE OF DIRECTION one of the most storied football pro- grams in not only the Washington, D.C., metro area, but also the United States. He went on to become a three-year starter for the Stags, finishing his sen- ior season with 369 receiving yards and three touchdowns, along with 49 tackles, nine of which were for losses, six sacks and four forced fumbles. Before his senior year even began, Wilkerson was one of the most sought- after prospects in Maryland. Rivals.com considered him the 10th- best athlete in the state, and by the spring of his junior year, he had gath- ered more scholarship offers than he could recall off the top of his head. He gave it a shot anyway, arranging each program in his mind by its con- ference affiliation. "I had Iowa, Nebras- ka, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue," he said, "Maryland, Clemson, Florida State, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Utah, USC, and, um, I can't remem- ber the rest." He didn't have to. On March 26, Wilkerson accepted one of his other scholarship offers, the one from Penn State. And though he pledged his verbal commitment to Joe Paterno and his coaching staff, the 6-foot-4 tight end held strong while his future school searched for Paterno's succes- sor. Then in February, he made his commitment official by faxing a signed letter of intent to Bill O'Brien. "The football team is a family-based football team, and no matter who the head coach is, they're always going to push an education," Wilkerson ex- plained. "I just felt like there wasn't a better place to get an education and play big-time college football at the same time." W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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