Junior Rank Loves Virginia Beach!

by Andy Hilton, recruit757

These Junior Rank Campers Are Invited To Phoenix! (Photo: recruit757)

We had a sit down with Shaon Berry, CEO and Founder of Junior Rank, just after the awards ceremony for the Diamond Flight Camp that took place at the Virginia Beach Field House and Sportsplex this weekend.  Junior Rank coaches came in expecting to see good talent.   They left the camp blown away by the talent they found in The 757.

First, it’s time for an editorial comment.  If you’re a football player in or anywhere near The 757, and you weren’t at Junior Rank camp this weekend, you MISSED OUT!  The three days of training, discipline and high performance have improved the game of every student there.    The weekend made a big impression on everyone involved. 

Now, Shaon Berry of Junior Rank and his coaching staff have already discussed adding more Phoenix invites to accommodate more of the talent they saw in Virginia Beach.   Top performers at the camp won invites to the USMC Semper Fidelis All-American Game and the Proving Ground National Combine that takes place in Phoenix in conjunction with the Fiesta Bowl this January. 

Berry raved about the weekend.  “This has been my favorite camp so far.  The attitude of the young men, the (local) coaching staff that came out, recruit757 coming out and supporting us… we felt a lot of love coming out here and we were ready to get after it and evaluate the talent.   We expected to see a lot of talent at the skill positions, but what blew me away was the O-Line talent.  I did not expect to see some of the guys that I saw and the way they performed,” Berry said.

“I was thinking that we’d be loaded up at defensive back and wide reciever.   I don’t know if the big schools are coming in here enough for quarterbacks, but the guys here this weekend were well disciplined, they have great footwork, mechanically they are just tremendously sound,  and we have some great athletes at that position.”

When asked specifically about the talent at the quarterback position, it was tough for Shaon to find a place to stop.  His top QB list included a lot of local guys.  

Nansemond River RB Lamont Brown (Photo: Andy Hilton/recruit757)

“As advertised, Bucky Hodges (Salem) is a big kid.  He’s 6-5 and showed great leg strength.  He’s a guy who obviously stood out.   The coaching staff was impressed.  Virginia has seen it, Virginia Tech has seen it.  Others have seen it.  He was outstanding.  The surprise for me was Corwin Cutler (Indian River).  He was an Elite 11 kid who was excellent mechanically, showed great footwork, was a great decision maker, had great RPMs on the ball… the ball was just whistling out of his hand.  He also showed great character.   The kid is a ‘Yes, sir. No, sir’ kid, and you can’t help but fall in love with some of these guys,” said Berry of the quarterbacks that jumped to the top of his list.

Picking a running back favorite was easy for Shaon, and it’s a name that few are familiar with.  “Lamont Brown has awesome, awesome, awesome, feet.  He was a guy who accepted the coaching real well.  He’s obviously a raw talent, but he’s productive.  I understand he has over 3000 yards rushing in his career already and I don’t know if a lot of folks know about him,” Berry said.   Brown is a rising senior at Nansemond River High School.

Shaon came into the camp expecting to see a lot of talent at wide receiver and again, an unsung player got the nod as the top camper at the position.   “Christian Garner.    I don’t know where all of these coaches are looking, up and down the east coast, but they need to get down here and find out what’s going on here.  Garner is every bit of 6-6.   He caught everything.  Great, soft hands.  Smart kid with a good GPA, great to talk to….  You know, we spend three days getting to talk to these kids and getting to know them, and he’s a kid that I would talk to any college in the country about,” Shaon raved.   Garner is a wide receiver for Kellam.  Playing in the Wing-T offense has hampered Garner’s productivity.   If colleges knew where to look, they’d be all over Garner since he would create matchup problems even at the college level.

Landstown OL Aaron Hutchins: Camp MVP (Photo: Andy Hilton, recruit757)

Linemen stood out, to the surprise of the coaches at the camp.  The 757 is known for skill position talent, but the linemen blew Shaon away.  “Aaron Hutchins.  I don’t know how much everybody knows about him, but he stoned everybody that was moving and walking.   Everybody.  I think he lined up against everybody at some point and he was the only lineman who didn’t get beat the entire weekend.  He’s a quiet kid, unassuming, he’s probably 260 pounds.   On the hoof, he may not be the kind of guy you’d take a second look at, but you’d be missing it.  He is technically sound.  We had some great linemen at the Houston camp, some pretty big names, and I’d put Aaron up against any one of those guys any day,” Berry said with emphasis. 

Aaron won the camp MVP award, which is a rarity for a lineman.  Hutchins is a top lineman at Landstown and his teammate, Dominique Roldan, actually overshadows Hutchins a bit.  Roldan did not participate in the camp, but came out for the final day to support his fellow Eagle lineman.

There were plenty of top defensive linemen at the camp.  Once again a combination of strength, skill and character won out.  “Courtnye Wynn is going to be a name that we’re going to keep hearing over and over again over the next few years.  I don’t know that I’ve seen that much athleticism in one package…  Courtnye can run, he can jump, he can get north and south.   He looks more like a stand up guy, you know, an outside linebacker depending on the scheme, but my goodness… the physical traits are just beyond measure.   The character traits almost exceed the physical traits.  Outside of being an outstanding student,  he was the first one to show up this morning for our worship service and he was the last guy to leave the field, with a ‘thank you’.  He’s fantastic,”  Shaon said.

Wynn impressed the coaches at the camp all weekend long.   With the commitment of Mario Nixon to Virginia Tech, Wynn remains the lone blue chipper at Norfolk Christian who hasn’t committed yet.

Norfolk Christian LB Kwontie Moore (Photo: Andy Hilton, recruit757)

At linebacker, another Norfolk Christian athlete grabbed attention.  “Kwontie Moore for me today, showed me why every college in the region is looking at him.  Aside from being a physical specimen, he’s real smart.  He plays the pass well.   We’re not wearing pads out there and he still looks like a guy that you wouldn’t want to run the ball against.   He’s not shy.  I keep saying this, but these guys are power house guys on the field, but I’m more taken aback with their humility, their ability to accept coaching and direction, and their earnestness in being appreciative of the opportunity,” Berry said of the gracious nature of Kwontie and other players at the camp like him.  Kwontie committed to Virginia less than a week ago.

Defensive backs is where 757 talent usually stands out, and this weekend was no exception.  “I think Will Wahee stands out.  He’s tremendous.   He understands the game.  He’s the guy that coach (Mark) McMillian talked about as being exceptional.   We even had Nhyre Quinerly who stood out and won the fastest man competition for the younger guys, an eighth grader.  When coach McMillian talked about his top five kids, Quinerly was one of the top five DBs in the camp and he hasn’t hit a high school field yet.  I’m excited to see what he’s going to do over the next few years.  He’s a special talent,” said Shaon as he reflected on the best at the camp.  

Will Wahee is a Virginia commitment.   Quinerly is the son of former Maury head coach John Quinerly.   Nyhre will play for Lake Taylor in the fall.

The fastest man competition yielded quite a final race.   The top two finished in almost a dead heat as Taquan Mizzell from Bayside just barely fell to Kimdrick Feaster of Salem.    “That is a confident young man,” Shaon said of Kimdrick.  “He came out and did exceptionally well in coverage.  He has great closing speed and his top end speed was great too.  His personality was even more fun.”  Feaster is a defensive back at Salem. 

Scott Fahey Accepts the Camp Leadership Award (Photo: Andy Hilton, recruit757)

With the Marine Corps tied in, it makes good sense to have a leadership award at the camp.   The leadership award winner at the camp took charge on the line and directed his teammates on how to handle the incoming rush in 8 on 8 drills.  “Scott Fahey was a guy who was picking up his teammates all weekend long.  What we noticed with Scott was once he understood his role, he started to help his teammates with their role.  He’s a solid kid.  He’s well put together.  He just displayed exceptional leadership for us and he’s a kid that we thought very highly of,” Shaon said in praise of his leadership award winner.  Fahey is a rising senior center at Hickory who paired up well with his teammate, Troy Butler.

Berry then closed with a word to the kids that didn’t make the camp this time.   He was told that there’s even more talent in the area, and he was floored by that possibility.  “I’m a firm believer that God orchestrates all things and my hope is that the guys who weren’t here were somewhere that will truly benefit them.  For the guys that opted not to come, I think you missed out,” Berry said.

There is good news for all of the players in the region.   Junior Rank loved the talent they saw and they will be back.  Shaon Berry promised that he and Junior Rank would return.   

“I’ll definitely be back next year and every year after that.  It’s not rocket science to see that you have great athletes, great young men and great families that were here to support them.    The 757 and recruit757 can count on my support nationally as we tour the country.   You guys have set a bar.  I have to go out to Phoenix next weekend and see if they can meet up with what I saw in the Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads area.”

- Andy Hilton