Maldonado commits to Washington

Back during the May evaluation period, the Washington Huskies verbally offered Alejandro Maldonado, a 5-foot-11, 190-pound plackicker/punter prospect from Colton, Calif. Maldonado looked set to take his first offer and run with it, but got a little hung up on the recruiting terminology. Now it's the end of June, and Maldonado is square on what he sees for his college future.

"He never really committed that first time," Colton Head Coach Harold Strauss told Scout.com Monday. Maldonado, who was taking his cue from his kicking coach, mistook the idea of a verbal commitment to mean serious interest. His interest in Washington has continued to become more and more serious until today, when Strauss confirmed the news that Maldonado has cleared up his own notion of a commitment.

Strauss was out of town for the weekend, but came back to the news that the kicker had told the coaches at Washington that he's heading to Montlake, and he confirmed that news Monday morning. "(Maldonado) is excited," Strauss said.

"They told my coach (Hugo Castellanos) that they were going to offer me," Maldonado told Scout.com back in May. "They need a kicker right away, and I guess they were talking about me graduating early if possible and get started at the program at Washington."

"We think he is the best kicker in the nation," said Colton Head Coach Harold Strauss at the time, who added that Maldonado was 8-8 from 40+ and 3-3 from 50+ as a junior while not missing an extra point. "What makes him so valuable is that he's as good a punter as he is a field goal kicker and kick-off artist. So he can do it all. He can kick it out of the end zone and he can hit from 65 off grass. He's just a competitor and the coaches here that have been to practice have been in awe. It was one thing to see him kick on film, but another to see him in person."

Alejandro Maldonado Scout.com Profile