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Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Darkhorse recruit Raines to attend camp in Athens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Russ Raines dreams of playing college football.
The 6-foot-1, 245-pound junior defensive tackle for Satsuma (Ala.) High is confident his participation in the Mar. 29 Rivals.com 5-star combine in Athens will move him closer to achieving his goal.
“Being from a small town in Alabama and a high school that is generally not known for its football program, I think I just need to do everything I can to get any kind of advantage when it comes to recruiting,” Raines said.
“Going to the Rivals camp can only help me, it isn’t going to hurt me.”
Raines, who is still waiting on his first scholarship offer to arrive, participated in the Nike Combine in Atlanta earlier this month.
He lost a valuable recruiting ally when his high school coach, Jeff Kelly, left at the conclusion of the 2007 season to take a coaching job at neighboring Jackson (Ala.) High.
Kelly lettered at Southern Miss and played quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks.
“Luckily, one of the coaches already at our school was named the head coach,” Raines said. “So It wasn’t a real big transition.
“But after the coaching change a lot of the game film tapes went missing. So I’m in the process of creating a highlight film to send to colleges. I now have some in my possession and I’ll be sending those out soon.”
Raines isn’t concerned about the 20 pounds he has gained since November.
“It’s all legit muscle,” he said. “I’ve been working out. And we’ve got a good strength and conditioning coach here.”
While Raines hopes to drive his stock up next weekend during his visit to Athens, he said he’d be content to hear from any program willing to give him a chance to play football.
“I’m a big college football fan,” he said. “It would be such an honor to be looked at by any of the big schools in the SEC or ACC.
“But I’m hoping to hear from any school, really. How many people can say they’ve been recruited to play college football?”
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