MOCKSVILLE— Doug Illing may be a busy football coach come next fall — taking phone calls and reading recruiting letters.
It’s not often that a high school coach has one major Division I prospect but the Davie County High School coach has two: linebacker Patrick Lowery and kicker David Wooldridge, both rising seniors.
Each is already being swarmed under by the top programs in the country.
Just the other day, Mike Groh, son of new Virginia coach Al Groh, visited the Davie campus to visit with Lowery, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound headhunter. And while he was there, he talked with Wooldridge, a slim 6-3 kicker with a Tom Dempsey-like leg.
But Groh has to get in line. Everybody and their brother, it seems, has been to Mocksville to woo the two.
Lowery has talked with every team in the ACC and even Michigan, who sent a recruiter down.
“They ask me about my grades,” said Lowery, taking a break from Illing’s weightlifting class Wednesday afternoon.
“I like it,” he said of the recruiting process. “It has always been a dream of mine to play in college and it’s nice to know I have a chance to fulfill that.”
Lowery’s father, Buddy, the Davie athletics director, grew up in East Spencer and is close friends with Carl Torbush, the recently-ousted North Carolina coach.
“I’ve always liked Carolina but I’m not going to say that’s my favorite right now,” Lowery said.
He is ready for the summer, when he will attend several top-notch camps, including the one in Ann Arbor. He is scheduled to go to Virginia’s campus in the near future for a magazine photo shoot of the top seniors in America.
“I’ll try to use it as an (unofficial) visit.”
Wooldridge, the owner of a booming leg and the top returning kicker in the state, said that every ACC school except Florida State has sent coaches to talk to him. And then, there’s Steve Spurrier’s Florida Gators, which bring a gleam to his eyes.
“Florida hasn’t come up yet but they’ve sent me tons of letters,” he said.
Like Lowery, Wooldridge is planning some traveling this summer. He will actually practice with the Dallas Cowboys kickers in Texas Stadium.
His best boot so far? “I’ve hit from 61 yards off the ground,” he said.
That’s two yards short of Dempsey’s NFL record 63-yarder.
Wooldridge is also working on his punting, another chore he performs for Illing.
Wooldridge mentioned Florida, N.C. State, Clemson and Virginia as four of his favorites.
But neither War Eagles expect to make a hasty decision.
“I’m not going to commit early, I don’t think” Lowery said.
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