ALBEMARLE –– In January, a Colt will be playing football at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
West Stanly football standout Jordan Poole committed on Friday to play in the 2021 All-American Bowl — the 21st edition of the annual East vs. West matchup — after receiving an invitation to participate.
“Blessed, invited and committed,” the 6-foot-1, 225-pound two-way player from Oakboro announced on his Twitter account Friday.
The All-American Bowl will be televised live on NBC on Jan. 9, 2021, at 1 p.m. and features the top 100 high school football players in the nation according to the All-American Bowl Selection Committee, which consists of the All-American Bowl and 247Sports.
Over the past two decades, the bowl has featured 450 NFL draft picks, 66 Super Bowl champions, 160 Pro Bowl selections and 17 Heisman Trophy finalists.
NBC Sports analyst and All-American Bowl media director Gus Ramos recently named Poole, who has primarily been recruited as an outside linebacker, as “one of the fasting rising prospects in the nation.”
The running back and defensive back, now a rising senior at West Stanly, has received offers for the 2021 season from 11 FBS schools. That includes five from North Carolina (Appalachian State, Charlotte, Duke, East Carolina and NC State), three out-of-state ACC schools (Virginia Tech, Virginia and Louisville) and offers from South Carolina, Coastal Carolina, Old Dominion.
Virginia, N.C. State, South Carolina, Virginia Tech and East Carolina were the first schools to give offers to Poole, who now sits at No. 40 in 247Sports’ rankings of the top statewide recruits.
Poole’s junior season was cut short when he missed the Colts’ final three games (including a playoff game) due to a right shoulder injury. Those three games turned out to be West Stanly’s (8-3, 2-2) only losses of the season.
Despite that setback, Poole still managed to put up career–highs of 21 touchdowns, 1,534 rushing yards and 13.6 yards per carry in 2019. He also had four receiving touchdowns and 282 receiving yards. On the defensive side of the ball, he recorded 36 tackles, with 24 of them being solo efforts.
College scouts have taken notice of Poole’s speed — he has been timed at 4.6 seconds in the 40-yard dash, comparable to the 4.65-second average for outside linebackers participating in the NFL Combine, according to a five-year report that accounted for records from 2000 to 2012.
As an All-American selection, Poole is eligible for the All-American Bowl Player of the Year Award, the Anthony Muñoz Lineman of the Year Award, the Defensive Player of the Year Award, the All-American Bowl Man of the Year and the All-American Bowl MVP Award.