12:40 p.m.
Salem High School, Virginia Beach
Two players who helped Salem dominate the Beach District signed as expected, RB Kevin Whaley with Minnesota, LB Lyndell Gibson with Virginia Tech.
Gibson wore a Hokies cap and T-shirt, while Whaley sported a yellow sweater and dress shirt. Why didn’t Whaley have any Gopher gear on? “Couldn’t find any.”
Still, Whaley is headed to the Big Ten, and he sees similarities in the Gophers and in Salem when he arrived as a freshman. The SunDevils were 1-9 that year; Minnesota finished 1-11 last season.
“There’s a lot of new players coming in trying to help the program, and I’m one of them,” Whaley said, referring to Minnesota. “I’m just going to go out there and see what I can do.
Gibson, meanwhile, picked Virginia Tech – in large part, he said, because it was the first major school to offer him a scholarship. He took his only recruiting visit to Blacksburg.
“They were the first big school that came through; the first school on TV, and I want to play on TV,” Gibson said.
Whaley and Gibson helped the SunDevils go 20-0 in the Beach District in the past two seasons. Salem reached its first Group AAA Division 6 state tournament in 2006 and made back-to-back region championship games.
“These guys got it done on the field and off the field,” coach Robert Jackson said. “They made everybody on the field play better and changed the attitude of the program.”
- Jami Frankenberry
