Gold Ranger
Senior Member
I thought this was a great read, but it has a bad word in it, so I didn't link it. This is a local kid. FSU being the team to find him is just icing on the cake.
From Noles247:
From Noles247:
Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher was a celebrity as he made his way into Turner County High earlier this month.
Residents of Ashburn -- a town in south-central Georgia with a population of a little more than 4,000 -- flocked to the school to get a look at the coach and his staff members. As Fisher walked around the campus, he was constantly asked by students to stop and take pictures, and he obliged each time.
“Word got out that Coach Fisher was coming to town, this was big news in our town, there were people coming off the street,” Turner County coach Ben Simmons said. “If they could see Jimbo...this has not happened in a long, long time.”
There was a buzz felt throughout the school, but no one was more excited than Ontaria Wilson.
Quiet and often shy, Wilson tried to restrain his emotions. FSU had already offered a scholarship to teammate Tamorrion Terry and the Seminoles had recently discovered Wilson, but he was unsure if Fisher’s visit was for him as well.
Simmons had Wilson join him, Fisher and defensive coordinator Charles Kelly in a conference room inside the school’s civic center. Fisher introduced himself to Wilson, explained to the defensive back that he has the physical attributes the Seminoles are looking for, clarified that FSU was recruiting Terry separately from him and it wasn’t a package deal...and then told Wilson he had a scholarship offer from FSU.
“I was trying to hold back a smile,” Wilson said.
Said Simmons: “His face dropped, as if he was saying ‘thank you Jesus.’ I was thinking the same, because you tell the kids to put the work in and you tell the kids good will come.”
Finally, it did.
Wilson and Terry committed to FSU later that day.
Terry was more well known at the time of his commitment. A 6-foot-4 wide receiver with scholarship offers from FSU, Ole Miss, Auburn and others, Terry is a physical specimen who is hard to overlook on film. But Wilson was, and still is, more of a conundrum. He is not ranked in 247Sports’ composite ratings, a rarity for any player committed to a major Power Five school like FSU. Outside of Troy and some FCS schools that offered him, most programs either overlooked or were unaware of Wilson for most of his recruiting process. Even Wilson’s first name -- it’s spelled ‘Ontaria’ but pronounced ‘Ontario’ like the Canadian province -- was misspelled at the time of his commitment last month on 247Sports’ recruiting site because so little was known about him.
So why did Wilson fly under the radar until after his senior season and how did FSU discover him this late in the game?
Simmons, who coached NFL players like cornerback Lito Sheppard and wide receiver Jabar Gaffney when they were prep stars in Jacksonville, tried telling any coaching staff or media outlet that would listen about Wilson for a year. He was about 120 pounds as a sophomore and had a growth spurt that led to a breakout junior season as a two-way player at Turner County, but he couldn’t make it to camps or offseason seven-on-seven tournaments because he was so involved with basketball and track.
It’s a common issue for the Class 1A program, according to Simmons. With a little more than 300 students in the school, elite athletes like Wilson end up playing multiple sports, creating limited free time. He was second in the state in the triple-jump and was also a long jumper, ran the 400, the 4x1 and the 4x4, according to Simmons.
Turner County is in the heart of a football-crazed area in the state and Simmons would regularly “schedule up” to schools in higher classifications in order to get his team prepared for the postseason as well as to garner more exposure for his players.
“I don’t bull__ with my schedule,” Simmons said.
Wilson held up remarkably well against higher levels of competition. He recorded three interceptions that he returned for touchdowns and was a wide receiver that helped take pressure off Terry as the Rebels made it to the state playoffs for a second year in a row. In total, Wilson had seven non-offensive touchdowns and the 6-foot, 160-pound cornerback is still coming into his own physically.
“He’s the best athlete I’ve coached and is not far behind Lito [Sheppard, a two-time Pro Bowl cornerback],” Simmons said. “Maybe he’s even a little rangier. ...I call him ‘Lito Jr.’
“He’s not a project, he’s a player and he will play. I know people don’t see stars [next to his name], but that’s because he’s a three-sport athlete and is the best athlete at the school.”
Recruiting Terry, FSU got to see more and more of Wilson. The Seminoles have made it a point to recruit longer cornerbacks with natural ball skills, which Wilson exhibited frequently his senior year.
Kelly was actually at one of Turner County’s basketball games when he noticed Wilson’s athleticism on the court. Wilson assumed Kelly was watching only Terry, but his future position coach later informed him that Wilson’s quick hands stood out after he recorded a few steals in the first half.
That’s when Wilson started wondering if FSU was legitimately interested in him.
But even when Fisher, Kelly and wide receivers coach Lawrence Dawsey arrived at Turner County High this month, Wilson was still skeptical.
“I felt they were still there for Terry,” Wilson said. “Then the three of them approached me at same time with Coach Simmons. … We sat down and talked, and then it came.”
Said Simmons: “The whole school was in awe with these coaches coming in talking to Ontaria. For our community to see that, for these two guys to do what they’ve done, to get the notoriety, the intrigue that it’s brought to our small town…He will play.”
Shortly after receiving the offer, Fisher and Simmons met with Wilson’s parents at an elementary school where his mother works. After talking it over, Wilson committed to the Seminoles, closing the chapter on the uncovering of what FSU believes is a hidden gem.
“My mindset is you’ve got to make the best of it,” Wilson said. “Some people said [I didn’t get many offers] because I didn’t go to camps or whatever. But if you’re a player, they’ll find you.”
