WOODBERRY FOREST: Prosise joins Irish

Football was a bit of an afterthought during C.J. Prosise’s sophomore year at Woodberry Forest; a way to stay in shape between basketball seasons.

That all changed on a crisp, fall afternoon against St. Christopher’s when Prosise read pass, stepped in front of a wide receiver and began a productive career with the Tigers with an interception.

“My instincts just kind of took over and I broke on the ball,” said Prosise, this year’s Prep League MVP. “I was like, ‘whoa, maybe football is my thing after all.’”

On the same note, University of Notre Dame wasn’t even on the Petersburg native’s radar when he got his first Football Bowl Subdivision scholarship offer one year ago Wednesday, when University of Virginia came calling on National Signing Day 2011.

“Things kind of exploded after that first offer, and when Notre Dame first came into the picture I was thinking, ‘Why would I go anywhere else?’” Prosise said. “But then I did a little more research and I fell in love with them.”

It didn’t take long for the Fighting Irish to catapult to the top of the list when they did show interest, and Prosise said he chose Notre Dame as much for its academic prowess as its rich football history.

“The tradition on campus is special,” said Prosise, who became the Tigers’ eighth FBS recruit in the last three years. “It’s going to be crazy to walk down before a game and hear 100,000 fans screaming my name.”

It was standing room only Wednesday, as Prosise stood in front of family, friends and teammates in an elegant banquet hall on Woodberry’s campus off Route 15 south of Culpeper and thanked them all before officially joining the Fighting Irish with his signature on a national letter of intent.

“It has been great being part of the family here at Woodberry, and I’m excited about joining the Notre Dame family,” said Prosise, who earned 24 scholarship offers.

Woodberry head coach Clinton Alexander opened the ceremony with a few anecdotes and plenty of praise, remembering a time when he sat next to Virginia Tech recruiter Torrian Gray and compared Prosise to Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed.

“He’s just that kind of athlete,” Alexander said. “We weren’t really going to play him so early, but he just forced us to with his play and his work ethic.”

Prosise started for the Tigers since breaking into the lineup halfway through his sophomore year. He lined up at free safety, cornerback and wide receiver and returned kicks and punt.

The 6-foot-3-inch, 202-pounder finished his senior season with 51 tackles, six interceptions and two defensive touchdowns. He also hauled in three touchdown passes as a wide receiver and scored four touchdowns on punt returns and one on a kickoff return.

Alexander said he can’t wait to watch his defensive captain suit up for the Irish on Saturdays.

“Maybe it’s a little selfish, but I love it because Notre Dame is on TV every weekend,” said Alexander, who has led the Tigers to five straight Prep League titles. “They could play in Ireland and still be on TV.”

The aspect of being on TV most weekends wasn’t lost on Prosise, either. He ended his short spiel with, “I’ll see you all on NBC.”

Looking ahead

Woodberry Forest linebacker Doug Randolph has already made the biggest splash in next year’s local recruiting class by committing to Stanford. Liberty-Bealeton’s Wyatt Teller has six FBS offers heading into his senior year, and Kettle Run’s Michael Parker has five.

Check out Friday’s Star-Exponent for a sneak peek at next season’s crop of college football recruits.

More Tigers in college

In all, Woodberry Forest head coach Clinton Alexander said about 10 players in all from this year’s team will be moving on to play college football. Here’s a look at the other nine:

Nate Ripper, OLB

Deciding between Washington & Lee, University of Richmond or Uva (walk-on).

Rogers Clark, DE

Wake Forest (walk-on)

Reed Swearening, WR

Missouri (walk-on)

Cameron Wooster, NG

Trinity University

Greg McIntosh, TE

Kenyon College

Gibson Montgomery, FB

Davison College