Koonce Visits Two Schools

Mount Holly, N.J., native Carlton Koonce made a name for himself on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball as a junior and still is not sure which side of the ball he’ll be recruited to play on at the next level, but does already have a number of programs contacting him about visiting their schools. He recently took two visits which he could talk about and has plans for more.

At 5-foot-7, 165 pounds Carlton Koonce isn’t going to wow anyone with his size, however he does run a 4.44 40-yard dash and made a lot of plays for Rancocas Valley Regional High School as a junior, earning first-team All-Conference honors at tailback.

“Right now I have been getting a lot of letters mostly,” Koonce said. “Rutgers, Buffalo, Indiana, Temple, Stanford, Boston College, North Carolina, Purdue and Louisville have all been in contact and while some have been more serious then others it is definitely a good start.”

“I visited Rutgers for their junior day and it went really well,” Koonce explained. “There were a lot of players from South Jersey in the group they split me up in, so I knew a bunch of those guys from playing against them. The facilities were amazing there and everything was top-notch. They showed us the plans for the new stadium and recruiting lounge they’re planning on building and I think they said they’d be spending something like 103,000,000 on it. I was also told they are in the top three percentile academically in the nation.”

“My visit to Buffalo went well too, but the facilities weren’t up to par with what Rutgers had, although they did say they were being upgraded,” Koonce stated. “I liked the locker room there and the staff was very cool. They said they don’t knock you down because of size because they’re just looking for good football players which is something I liked obviously.”

As a junior, Koonce carried the ball 120 times for 830 yards and seven touchdowns. On defense, he had 40 tackles and three pass breakups.