Monday 5 February 2007

The interesting case of Chester Stewart

By Mike Gibson
There are all kinds of good recruiting stories out there.
In fact, with this incoming class of 25 new Temple Owls, there are probably 25 good stories.
For now, though, we'll concentrate on the interesting case of one Chester Stewart.
Temple offered a scholarship to this kid without ever looking at a video.
Stewart finished his senior season with stats you wouldn't normally find being produced by a big-time prospect (1,076 yards, 17 TDs).
In fact, Stewart attended a camp for quarterbacks last spring and Al Golden liked him enough to offer him a scholarship on the spot.
The story, or so it goes, was that Golden looked on as Stewart completed 10 straight passes in a seven-on-seven (no pads, no rush) drill and offered him a scholarship on the spot.
I usually like to see my quarterbacks in a real game with a real rush putting up real numbers, like Sto-Rox's Adam DiMichele (2,967 yards, 36 TDs his senior year) but I'm going to have to trust Golden on this one.
Stewart accepted.
Golden didn't look at not even one image of film.
He just liked what he saw in the one day at 11th and Diamond.
Stewart, who never took a snap at quarterback in a varsity game before this season, made Golden look, well, golden with his one year as a high school varsity quarterback.
He led DeMatha to an unbeaten season and threw the deciding TD pass in front of 9,000 fans for the D.C. Metropolitan championship.
Even more impressive about this young man is the strength of his character.
After committing to Temple, Stewart remained steadfast in that commitment despite being wooed by more high-profile programs. Temple made a commitment to Stewart and Stewart, in turn, made good on his commitment to Temple.
It's with those kind of people that Temple will eventually turn this thing around.
We hope.

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