When it comes to the local recruiting scene, Gerold Dickens has plenty to talk about.
The Plant City native, who is the president of NextLevel Sports Academe, has seen his program expand over the past few years, but things are bigger than ever now. He and vice president Hasani Jackson have had to add some extra coaches to the staff to work with the 60 Tampa Bay-area athletes they mentor, and this group of athletes is finding its members in the spotlight fairly often these days.
Residents of the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World will be pleased to know that several of the camp’s biggest standouts, including the top guy in the program, hail from this neck of the woods. In fact, all three local high school programs have someone in the NextLevel pipeline to keep an eye on.
TOP DOG
No discussion about the local recruiting scene is complete without mentioning T.J. Chase, the former Plant City Raider.
Since transferring to Bradenton-based football powerhouse IMG Academy, Chase led the Ascenders with 521 receiving yards and also scored five touchdowns as the team went 10-1 last season. The junior now has around 35 NCAA Division 1 offers to choose from, but has given a verbal commitment to Clemson.
Last month, he caught over 20 touchdown passes in the Las Vegas Pylon 7-on-7 Tournament. The performance helped him reach a four-star rating on rivals.com, which has also named him one of the top 25 wideouts in the country.
DURANT
The Durant Cougars made their mark offensively last season with a strong ground attack, so it should come as no surprise to Cougar fans that one of their own running backs is impressing the NextLevel coaches.
Jalen Forte, who saw limited action behind Crispian Atkins and Kadarius Griffin last season, has spent the offseason grinding so much that Dickens cracks a smile just thinking about it.
“He is the rising star from Durant,” Dickens says. “Jalen came in with us at the Elite game, over in Tampa, and caught a lot of touchdown passes coming out of the backfield and lining up at wide receiver. He showed a lot of quickness. You could tell he can definitely play.”
Dickens calls Forte a “big-time impact player,” based on what he’s seen Forte do thus far, and praised his ability to thrive in both the short and deep passing games. He also won an MVP award at the National Underclassmen Football Combine in Tampa.
PLANT CITY
Of the Raiders players, Dickens says linebacker Steven Ogletree has been the main guy this offseason.
“He has great potential, and has gotten real, real high reviews in the camps we’ve gotten him in,” Dickens says. “He’s a potential four or five-star prospect.”
In addition to Ogletree’s on-field ability, Dickens praises his leadership skills. But right there with Ogletree is wideout Antoine Thompson, who got his chance to take over for Chase as the team’s number one wideout and performed well.
“He’s in the same kind of mold as T.J.,” Dickens says. “He’s a gamer. He plays well in games and has done very, very well in our tournament play and in the camps.”
Both Raiders got recognition in February at the Nike Football Opening Regionals, an invite-only camp held in Orlando, and Thompson won a spot to work at wideout in the NUC Five-Star camp.
Running back Markese Hargrove also drew praise for his recent performance at an Adidas 7-on-7 tournament camp and for the rest of the work he’s put in this offseason.
“He really, really shined a lot,” Dickens says. “Coming up big with some catches. He’s a good talent. His brother is Dazmond Patterson. That whole family is very athletic. We’re looking for him to do very good things at Plant City.”
STRAWBERRY CREST
Three of the newest Strawberry Crest Chargers have also been involved in NextLevel’s activities, and Dickens expects all three to show improvement by the time they take the field in August.
There’s Kisean Ruth, the freshman defensive end/linebacker who played in all 10 games last season. Dickens sees real potential in the interior lineman.
“He’s done very well for us,” Dickens says. “He has a lot of upside. Very quick coming off the ball. He’s a real good talent.”
The other two are the Blackmon twins, Bryce and Chase, who transferred to Crest from Armwood last season. Bryce plays linebacker, Chase plays running back, and both twins have been showing some promise lately.
“Great impact players, doing very, very well,” Dickens says. “We’re real excited about them.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
GET TO THE NEXT LEVEL
NextLevel Sports Academe is a locally-based football training program that works with Tampa Bay-area youths to improve their football skills and classroom performance, and to also make them more visible to college scouts.
Program president Gerold Dickens says, though NextLevel is meant to supplement each player’s high school (or other) program instead of take the spotlight from it, every player who joins the program will be there to put in nothing but hard work.
If interested in getting your child involved with NextLevel, call Dickens at (813) 770-8367, or contact Hasani Jackson at (813) 382-0740.