Recruiting heating up at Sickles

Posted Jan 27, 2012 by Bill Ward

Updated Jan 27, 2012 at 11:06 PM

Things are heating up on the recruiting scene at Sickles High, head football coach Brian Turner reported Friday.

No, there’s been no firm offers by the more than dozen college coaches who have filtered through the Gryphons’ campus recently. But Turner believes underclassmen like receiver Bilal Salat, defensive back Adekunle Olusanya and linebackers Haiden Nagel and Josh Black will soon receive pitches from several of the colleges that have stopped by. Those include Iowa State, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Cincinnati and Missouri.

Salat, Olusanya and Nagel are juniors. Salat has strong interest from Iowa State, Virginia and Cincinnati. Olusanya is expected to land offers from Georgia Tech and Missouri and Nagel is being courted by Virginia. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Black is just a sophomore and recruiters have told Turner by the time Black is a senior, he could have offers from most of the major Division I programs.

“Some of these smaller Division I schools are so impressed with Josh,” Turner said. “They’re telling me ‘Coach, eventually, we won’t be able to touch him because so many big schools will be chasing him.’ “

Sickles finished 7-3 last season and just missed making the playoffs in a extremely competitive Class 6A-District 8 league that also contained state champion Armwood, perennial power Hillsborough, 2010 state champion Jefferson and King. What encourages Turner and his staff is the return of a good portion of their 2011 squad, including several key players.

Photos: Defensive back Adekunle Olusanya (top) and receive Bilal Salat are among the underclassmen drawing interest from college recruiters at Sickles recently. Photos by Bill Ward/The Tampa Tribune.