The Vianney basketball team is off to its best start in school history and one of the Golden Griffins' key players, Brad Woodson, picked up his first scholarship offer last week.
A 6-foot-4, 180-pound shooting guard, Woodson received an offer from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
"It was really exciting," he said. "I kind of figured that they would sooner or later because they had been recruiting me pretty heavy. I got a text from Dana Morgan, the guy who runs the (SW Illinois) Jets, and he said to call (assistant coach Matt Laur) from SIUE because they want to make an offer."
Vianney (14-0) is the No. 1 team in the STLhighschoolsports.com large-schools rankings and recently captured the championship at the Meramec holiday tournament for the first time.
Woodson averaged 16 points during Vianney's four victories at Meramec and was selected to the event's all-tournament team for the second year in a row. His strong performance there may have been the reason the Cougars' coaching staff extended the offer when it did.
"I think Meramec had a lot to do with it," he said. "I think I really took off at Meramec and I think they saw something they liked."
Woodson is averaging 12.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, both of which rank second among the Golden Griffins. He is shooting 39.5 percent (17 of 43) on 3-pointers.
As a junior, Woodson averaged 12.8 points, made 34.4 percent of his 3-point attempts (21 of 61) and 72.4 percent of his free throws (76 of 105) as the Griffins went 17-12.
DE SMET'S BAUER EARNS ALL-AMERICAN HONOR
De Smet sophomore offensive tackle Andy Bauer is one of the area's top prospects and has earned some impressive accolades for his work this season.
A 6-5, 300-pounder who was tabbed as the Post-Dispatch All-Metro sophomore of the year, Bauer was recently selected as a sophomore all-American by MaxPreps.com.
Bauer already has early scholarship offers from Missouri, Miami (Florida) and Boston College and has several more schools tracking his progress.
EDWARDSVILLE'S VALENTINE PLANS TWO MORE VISITS
Edwardsville defensive tackle Vincent Valentine, the No. 2 prospect in the Post-Dispatch Super 30 list, has official visits scheduled for the next two weekends.
Valentine, who visited Nebraska in mid-December, will take an official visit to Florida this weekend and then Illinois the following weekend before making his decision.
The 317-pound defensive tackle said last month that Nebraska and Illinois were his leaders, though he had yet to visit the Illinois campus after the coaching change from Ron Zook to Tim Beckman.
SLUH FOOTBALL PLAYERS LOOKING AT SCHOOLS
St. Louis University High football team had several seniors play key roles in its run to the Class 6 semifinals this fall and now those players are working toward deciding where to continue their careers.
SLUH coach Gary Kornfeld said Wednesday that Sam Knesel already has made a commitment. Knesel, 6-1 and 270 pounds, has committed to Missouri S&T in Rolla.
Quarterback Trevor McDonagh, who threw for 3,440 yards and accounted for 36 total touchdowns during his senior season, will visit Penn this weekend and Columbia next weekend.
Kornfeld said wide receiver Stefan Sansone, who has a scholarship offer from Southeast Missouri State, could make a visit there next weekend.
Wide receiver Cameron Stubbs will visit Northwest Missouri State and Dayton this weekend and then visit Truman State next weekend.
Other Jr. Bills looking to make college decisions: running back Terek Hawkins (Washburn and William Jewell are interested), defensive back Paul Simon (William Jewell) and linebacker Jamil Irvin-Muhammad (Missouri S&T, Washburn).
