Many high school football 2022 recruits have started to name favorites in their recruitment by releasing lists of their top schools and that includes junior Akim Sledge.
Sledge is a 3-star cornerback from Life Christian Academy in Chester, Virginia. Over the weekend, Sledge narrowed his list of offers down to five schools: Pitt, West Virginia, Maryland, Boston College and Stanford.
While a majority of the recruits that have recently narrowed down their list of schools to a ‘Top 10 or 12″, Sledge tells Pittsburgh Sports Now that he was comfortable making a bigger cut and looks forward to eventually getting it down to one.
“I plan on taking my recruitment out to May and the end of my spring season,” Sledge told Pittsburgh Sports Now. “Narrowing things down to just five wasn’t hard, these top five schools are the ones that kept in touch with me the most throughout this process and they also all have the major that I plan on pursuing in college (sports medicine).
“Now that I’m down to these five, I’m going to be really talking to my family and discussing things like location. I’m also going to still be looking to see who’s continuing to recruit me the hardest and also talk with the coaches to find more about what’s going on with the schools.”
Sledge is from the state of Virginia and was offered and recruited by former Pitt assistant Chris Beatty. Did Sledge have any reservation naming Pitt as a finalist knowing that Beatty is no longer a member of the staff?
“No, not really because the whole coaching staff at Pitt is great and stayed in touch with me,” said Sledge. “Coach (Chris) Beatty was great and I really appreciated him and everything he’s done for me up until this point but him not being there anymore isn’t a deal breaker for me.
“I haven’t been able to get up there yet but I really like everything I’ve seen and been told about Pitt, like the campus, facilities and the academics you receive from Pitt. Pitt is one of those schools that’s hard to pass up on. I also like the pipeline that Pitt has created with Virginia and I know a couple of players that are going there, like a lot of my friends from the Virginia Beach area.”
Sledge is a 6-foot-1, 170 pound cornerback that believes he has great technique that is strong at press-man coverage and considers himself a physical defender.
With his recruitment in the home stretch, Sledge is enjoying the process but more importantly, is proud of what he’s done to put himself in this position, which is not only going to benefit him but also his family.
“When I eventually sign with a school, that’s going to mean everything to me,” said Sledge. “I grew up with four other siblings and my parents had to pay for all of them to go to college. By me going to go to college on a scholarship, that is going to take a lot of weight off their shoulders and they won’t have to worry about me and where I go.”