Hello, Manual sports fans. This year, I will be taking you behind the scenes of Manual sports. As you know, there is so much more to a team than wins and losses. Through this blog you will be able to take a closer look at all of Manual athletics.

Over the summer, two Manual football players committed to play for Western Kentucky University. Running back Dishan Romine and cornerback Juwan Gardner, who are best friends, gave the WKU coach their verbal commitment.

Gardner, whose brother Darnell is a walk-on freshman at WKU, committed two days before Romine did. Gardener had other scholarship offers from Miami of Ohio, Ball State, Indiana State, and Southern Illinois. But when Gardner chose WKU, I wasn’t surprised whatsoever. It is close to home, a rising program, and his brother, with whom he is very close, goes there.

However, I was a little surprised about Romine’s decision. Romine said his deciding factors were academic opportunities and relationships with the coaches. If academic opportunities were a huge deciding factor for Romine, I’d have thought that he would have chosen one of his other offers. He had offers from some of the best academic schools in the nation, such as Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, and Princeton. If I had a chance to go to any of these schools, I’d be there in a second. He also had other scholarship offers from Toledo and Wafford.

However, the recruiting process is not over for Romine. “Although I have committed I am still keeping my options open for college. Ivy League offers are opportunities anyone must consider, and depending on how well my senior season is, I may receive offers from some more schools,” said Romine.

With that being said, both players say they plan on sticking to their word and attending WKU next year. However, I would not be surprised if either took some visits to other schools and ended up somewhere else.

duPont on!