By Andy Walter

SMYRNA — Cameron Edge signing with Maryland on Wednesday may have come as a surprise.

After all, the Smyrna High quarterback still has a season of eligibility remaining in high school.

But for a player to reclassify like Edge did, it has taken a lot of work behind the scenes.

And it will take even more academic work for the highly-recruited player to meet the state’s graduation requirements by May.

Smyrna coach Mike Judy, though, said Edge found himself with a really good opportunity.
“The opportunity arose with the right place, the right school,” said Judy. “The landscape of college football and recruiting has changed drastically.

“Now there seems to be a little bit of a trend — especially at the quarterback position — of kids foregoing their senior year of high school and enrolling early. It’s just the first time that we’ve had to deal with it but it’s not that crazy in the realm of recruiting.”

Edge wasn’t the only Henlopen Conference football player to sign with an FBS program on Wednesday. Woodbridge High defensive end Noah Matthews signed with Kentucky from the SEC.

Edge’s signing made a splash regionally on signing day because he was ranked as high as the No. 11 quarterback in the country by ESPN.

Judy said Edge started talking about moving up to the recruiting class of 2022 late in the fall.

If it was going to happen, though, Edge’s class schedule had to be adjusted so he’d have the credits to graduate this school year. The 6-foot-1, 190-pounder spent his first two high school years at DeMatha Catholic in Washington, D.C.

Because he’d done well in school, Edge would have needed to take only a couple more classes next year. Judy said he and school personnel have monitored Edge to make sure he could handle the extra schoolwork.

“It’s something I’m glad we were able to help him do,” said Judy. “For any kid trying to do it, it’s going to be an additional part of your workload academically.

“But the only kids who are trying to do it are the ones who can get that done anyway. If he just continues to do what he’s doing, he’ll graduate in June and enroll at Maryland in the summer.”

In his one season playing for his hometown school, Edge helped lead Smyrna to the DIAA Class 3A state finals. He was named the Class 3A Offensive Player of the Year after completing 183 of 273 passes for 2,990 yards with 27 touchdowns and two interceptions.

Rated as a four-star recruit, Edge reportedly picked Maryland over LSU, Michigan State, Penn State, Tennessee and Oregon.

While Smyrna would love to have Edge for his senior season, Judy said it’s also a big part of any high school coach’s job to help players fulfill their goals.

“They’re going to come through and you’re going to try to teach them some things,” said Judy. “You let them have some fun and win some football games. For many of them, their big goals also align with the team goals.

“My job is to help make sure we help the kid get where he is capable of going and try to push him to accomplish the things that he wants to accomplish.”

Follow Andy Walter on Twitter at @DSNSports.