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Windsor football star Joey O'Connor followed Big Ten detour to Ohio State
Posted: 01/31/2012
By Ryan Casey
The Denver Post
Windsor star Joey O'Connor plans to sign Wednesday with Ohio State. He made a pledge last summer to play for Penn State. John Leyba, The Denver Post
WINDSOR ? He had slept easy on the ride to the airport, comfortable with the decision he was about to make.
Joey O'Connor had found exactly what he was looking for in a recruiting trip to Penn State last June. The campus, the people, the football program. A star offensive lineman at Windsor High School, he always had dreamed of playing in the Big Ten.
So, as he started his journey back home last summer, he briefly chatted with Chris Jones, his coach at Windsor who also made the trip, and then conked. Jones equated it to "finding that perfect girl." Hours later, after a brief conversation over dinner with his parents, the 6-foot-4, 295-pound O'Connor committed to Penn State.
Over the next few months, the O'Connor family proudly wore the school colors. They watched the Nittany Lions play live on television every Saturday, then watched the full game replay that night. Joey even used a Penn State lanyard as his key chain.
On Nov. 5, a Saturday, the O'Connor family was watching TV when they noticed a crawl across the bottom of the screen making reference to child sexual abuse and the Penn State football program. Within a week, O'Connor would decommit, his world turned upside down, not sure who he would be casting his lot with come Feb. 1, national signing day.
Jones first met O'Connor when he was in eighth grade. The oldest of the O'Connor clan, Chelsea, was on Windsor's track team and competed in the pole vault ? an event, as it happens, that was coached by Jones. Chelsea would rave to Jones about how massive her younger brother was, how he'd make an excellent football player. Soon, their paths crossed, but Jones was left thinking Chelsea had exaggerated her brother's size.
Entering his freshman year at Windsor, Joey was 6-foot-1, 210 pounds. Big, but not massive.
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Read more: Windsor football star Joey O'Connor followed Big Ten detour to Ohio State - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/preps/ci_19856491#ixzz1l2gNBqdr
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