McBride's Choice a Curveball

Winslow Township Head Coach Michael McBride has not been shy about his thoughts on keeping players from his school close to home and this weekend his nephew Tyrone threw the recruiting world a curveball when he gave a verbal commitment to Massachusetts over many Division I-A scholarship offers.

Tyrone McBride held offers from Tennessee, Connecticut, Iowa, Akron, East Carolina and Marshall, but when the 6-foot-1, 205-pound safety thought about his future he decided that Massachusetts was the right place for him. We spoke to his uncle and head coach tonight about his decision to join the Minutemen.

“As a family we did not want him to go out of the region because we’ve had bad experiences with that before,” Michael McBride said. “We also didn’t want to pressure him into going to a “big name” school either. We just wanted Tyrone to pick a place he felt comfortable at and that put him in a good situation for the next few years.”

“His decision to go to Massachusetts was heavily influenced by two of our former players being there in wide receiver Julian Talley and defensive end Jeromy Miles,” McBride added. “Just having some people close to him really allowed him to have a heck of a time up there.”

With McBride traveling to New England, we asked his coach why not Connecticut? The answer was very simple.

“Connecticut really stopped talking to us for a while which really took everyone by surprise obviously,” McBride explained. “We thought he could have really fit in there, but they were not very active recruiting him at all. Things ended up for the best though, so it isn’t a worry.”

McBride will most likely end up growing into a linebacker at the collegiate level.