Gottsch adds 19, ups Tabor’s football signings total to 54

Tabor?s list of off-season signings continues to grow, with the football program alone bringing its recruiting class total to 54.

Coach Mike Gottsch has signed 19 players in the past four weeks, almost all of whom will come to Hillsboro from beyond state lines.

Brandon Langston, a 5-8, 167-pound fullback from Oskaloosa, was Tabor?s only in-state signing last month. But with 10 other in-state recruits inked, Kansas remains the most represented state in the Bluejays 2008 recruiting class.

Barely.

With the signings of Justin Trammell, of Bakersfield, Keenan Mancho, of Stockton, and Zebulun Petty, of Yuba City, California (9) moved ahead of Texas (8) for second place.

Petty will transfer from Yuba College. As a 5-10, 210-pound running back, he rushed for over 1,000 yards.

Mancho is a 6-2, 305-pound guard/center who may earn a starting job on the offensive line in his first season with the program. The addition of the second Trammell?Justin?s brother Joseph signed five weeks ago?makes Bakersfield (4) the most represented city in the class.

Justin Trammel was a first-team all-league running back and linebacker in consecutive seasons at Lighthouse Christian High School.

With the addition of Jessie Fudge III, Jarvis Major and Robert Ellis in recent weeks, Homestead, Fla., vaulted into second place the class?s cities. Gottsch has inked a total of seven Floridians so far.

Fudge was a standout defensive back and team captain during his senior season at South Dade High School.

Major will transfer from a Minnesota community college. Major, a 5-11, 235-pound linebacker, and Ellis, a 6?4, 240-pound tight end and incoming freshman, are also South Dade alumni.

Tabor will also have three from Atmore, Ala.: Joshua McCants and David Quarker are the most recent additions.

During the offseason so far, the Bluejays have signed two from Marion County: Spencer Brown and Michael Scheele, both of whom graduated from Hillsboro High this spring.

The tennis, soccer, baseball, and basketball teams have also been active:

  • Greta Wiebe, a native of Hillsboro, will continue to play in her home town next fall.

    While at Hillsboro High School Wiebe was a three-year letterwinner, a regional runner-up, and a substate qualifier her senior season.

  • Frontier Academy High School senior Lacy Jo Ritchey (Hudson, Colo.) will join the women?s soccer team as a 5-5 forward.

  • Anthony Williamson, a 5-9 centerfielder, helped lead his high school to a 16-8 record and a fifth place finish in the MAACS National Tournament, earning a spot on the all tournament team.

  • Andrea Robinson will be returning to the Bluejays backcourt for her junior season after a 1-year hiatus.

  • The men?s basketball team has added Seth Hardiman, a 6-2 point guard out of Derby with the ability to play multiple positions next season for the Bluejays.

    Coach Micah Ratzlaff said that ?Seth was one of the top pure high school point guards I had seen all year…with his size, strength, and his ability to distribute the basketball, Seth is able to compete at an extremely high level.?

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