Durron Neal loves the challenge of playing wide receiver.
The De Smet senior likes looking across the line of scrimmage and thinking of a way to beat the defensive back in front him. He likes looking for a way to make a big play, something to help his team win.
"Growing up watching guys like Jerry Rice and Michael Irvin and other great receivers, like Andre Reed, I just got attracted to it," Neal said.
Neal, who has verbally committed to the University of Oklahoma, is the area's top prospect. He headlines a recruiting class that is loaded with talented playmakers at wide receiver.
Highlighting the pass catchers in the senior class are Neal, Parkway Central's Brandon Sheperd (Oklahoma State), Kirkwood's Mike McHugh (Northwestern), Ladue's Jehu Chesson (Michigan), De Smet's KeVonn Mabon (Ball State) and Webster Groves tight end Ben Arnold (Western Michigan).
Uncommitted players like Soldan's Paul McRoberts, Fort Zumwalt West's Kyle Echols, St. Louis University High's Stefan Sansone and Webster Groves' Demetrius Robinson add depth to the group.
The first day high school seniors can sign binding national letters of intent with NCAA Division I and II football programs is Feb. 1. On that day, seniors who participate in field hockey, soccer, track, cross country and men's water polo also can sign for the first time.
Athletes in other sports could sign beginning Nov. 9. NCAA Division III and other small colleges do not follow National Letter of Intent signing guidelines.
"Without a doubt, I think it's one of the better classes we've had around here in a long time," SLUH coach Gary Kornfeld said. "You'd be hard-pressed to go back and try to find a year where there were so many like this year."
Rivals.com rates Neal as the No. 62 prospect in the senior class and the No. 7 wide receiver prospect, while ESPNU ranks Neal as the No. 64 prospect and 10th-best wide receiver.
Scout.com puts Sheperd as the 102nd player in his class and 17th best at wide receiver. ESPNU has Chesson as the No. 58 wide receiver prospect and Sheperd as the No. 85 receiver. Rivals rated Sheperd as the No. 100 wide receiver.
The best wide receiver prospect in the country is St. Louis native Dorial Green-Beckham, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound man-child who relocated to Springfield before high school and set the national record for receiving yards at Hillcrest.
Green-Beckham is rated by Rivals and Scout as the No. 1 overall prospect in the senior class. ESPN has him at No. 3.
Had he not moved to Springfield, Green-Beckham would be the cherry on top of a terrific St. Louis recruiting group at wide receiver. As it is, this year's class still is pretty special.
"I think it's a pretty rare class," said Matt Biermann, the founder and director of Elite Football Academy. "They've worked their butts off. I don't think we've had a receiver crew like that come out of the area, and we probably won't have another one like it for a while."
Nine wide receivers in the area had more than 1,000 yards recieving during the fall season. Soldan's McRoberts was the area leader with 1,607 yards.
Francis Howell, MICDS and SLUH each had two receivers top the 1,000-yard mark: Howell's Alex Strong (1,250) and Corey King (1,191), MICDS' Jack Howell (1,114) and Foster Bundy (1,036), and SLUH's Sansone (1,026) and Mitch Klug (1,026).
"There are wide receivers everywhere," Howell coach Bryan Koch said. "It seemed like every week we had to game plan for someone. The game isn't 'We're bigger than you and we're going to run over you,' it's 'We're faster than you and we're going to run by you.'"
Koch, who played at Francis Howell and the University of Illinois, said the Vikings had never had a wide receiver surpass the 1,000-yard mark before this season.
Koch's offensive system is designed to get their best 11 players on the field. But he has noticed a trend in recent years. When the school's incoming freshmen report for practice, they try out at whatever position they desire to play.
"Five years ago we had 30 running backs and 15-20 wide receivers," he said. "Now we have 40 wide receivers and four running backs."
Koch said the Vikings have two assistant coaches working with wide receivers (one for the slot receivers and another for the guys out wide) and one running backs coach.
CBC coach Scott Pingel was a standout wide receiver at Westminster College in the late 1990s, finishing his career with NCAA all-division records for receptions (436), receiving yards (6,108) and touchdown catches (75).
Pingel said he has seen players gravitate toward the wide receiver position since the mid- to late-1990's, when spread offenses were becoming more prominent in college football.
"I think so many players see that there is more opportunity on the field now because you don't just have one running back and two receivers," Pingel said. "You have one running back and four wideouts, so you have basically five of the same type of players on the field now.
"So I think the receiver position was what people gravitated toward, and then they just kept getting better and better and bigger and faster, and now it's kind of just taken over the game."
Kornfeld said the success of Gary Pinkel and his spread offense at the University of Missouri has had a huge impact on offensive systems at the high school level. Coaches see the excitement Mizzou's offense generates, and they sign on for clinics and camps where they have a chance to talk with the Tigers' coaching staff.
"I've been in this thing 34 years now and watched the evolution of everybody now going from where they used to be running ballclubs to now throwing," Kornfeld said. "I think you're seeing so many more ballclubs now that throw the football. Obviously, it's a fun position to play. If you're in an offense that's throwing the ball around, that's a great spot to be in on the receiving end. Obviously, back years ago a lot of these clubs weren't throwing the ball. You didn't want to be out there because you never touched it."
One of the top wide receivers to come out of St. Louis, Kirkwood product Jeremy Maclin of the Philadelphia Eagles, may not have been a wideout in high school except for a change in philosophy.
A first-round draft pick out of Missouri, Maclin was a running back when he was younger and played some quarterback as a freshman before moving to wide receiver when the Pioneers switched from a run-heavy offense to a pass-happy spread.
Maclin was the No. 2 prospect in the Post-Dispatch Super 30 list of prospects as a senior. He was behind Webster Groves linebacker Adrian Clayborn, who moved to defensive end at Iowa and was a first-round draft pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last spring.
But Maclin's graduating class, which also included Kirkwood teammate and current St. Louis Rams tight end Mike McNeill, couldn't touch this year's group in terms of depth at wide receiver.
Neal (No. 1), Sheperd (No. 5), Chesson (No. 7) and McHugh (No. 8) all landed in the top 10 of this year's Super 30 list.
The area has produced some good wide receivers in recent years, but nothing like the depth and quality of this class.
In 2007, the top three prospects all wound up playing wide receiver in college: Hazelwood West's LaMark Brown (Kansas State), Hazelwood Central's Marvin McNutt (Iowa) and Summit's Rolandis Woodland (Missouri). McNutt signed with the Hawkeyes to play quarterback but ended up being one of the more productive receivers in school history.
The 2008 class included two wideouts in the Top 10: De Smet's Wes Kemp (Missouri) and Hazelwood East's DeMarco Paine (Iowa).
In 2009 there were three wide receivers who signed with Division I schools among the top 15 of the Super 30 list: East St. Louis' Kraig Appleton (Wisconsin), Maplewood's Bryant Allen (Minnesota) and Washington's Kerwin Stricker (Missouri).
Two years ago there were two: Mascoutah's Matt Milton (Tennessee) and Cahokia's Jimmie Hunt (Missouri). A year ago, there was one wide receiver — Keante Minor of East St. Louis, who signed with Arkansas — in the Top 10 of the Super 30 list.
Neal is the top wide receiver prospect to come out of St. Louis since Maclin. He describes his colleagues at that position as competitors who are always trying to outdo each other every game.
"Everybody just wants to win," he said. "And everybody wants to make the big play for their team."
