Mistretta Could Decide Soon

Nicholas Mistretta has flirted with many Division I-A programs, however it looks like he may end up going to the Ivy Leagues just as another North Jersey standout did in Bergen Catholic safety Dean Scaduto last season. Right now the Ramsey, N.J., product has his list narrowed to six schools he is comfortable with and could pull the trigger at any time.

Nicholas Mistretta helped Don Bosco Prep School to a New Jersey State Championship last season, making 65 tackles and three sacks and now he will look to help them repeat before moving onto the next level to play. At this point the 6-foot-2, 220-pound linebacker holds one scholarship offer from Columbia and says he has a list of half a dozen schools that are most likely his finalists.

“I camped at Princeton, Duke, Boston College and Columbia,” Mistretta said. “Columbia has offered me a spot, however I would have to enroll early if I wanted to accept it, so that decision would need to be made by November at the latest. I am thinking about taking the offer, but am just weighing my options. Right now I am pretty much down to Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, Georgetown, Duke and Bucknell and will be visiting the schools that I have not seen shortly.”

“I went to Duke for camp and it went really well,” Mistretta stated. “The coaching staff said they were really on the fence about whether they were going to offer me and just wanted to see what happened with the other kids they had offered before making any decisions with me. I loved the school and am obviously looking for that kind of an education. I also liked the coaching staff a lot.”

Mistretta has no timetable for a decision and plans to speak with coaches from all the schools he is interested in to see where he stands so that he can get a better feel for which schools are in and which are out. As a junior he was a second-team All-County and first-team All-North Jersey performer.