RW Soul: “Orlando 9” is the beginning of a new wave of recruiting for FAMU Football

The 2007 Florida A&M University football team will bring nine Orlando area natives back home when they face off against archrival Bethune-Cookman in the Walt Disney World Florida Classic XXVIII, presented by State Farm on Saturday, November 17, at 3:30 p.m. in the Florida Citrus Bowl.

This group of talented student-athletes is the largest number of Orange County area players on a FAMU football roster in several years. They also represent the positive results of two years of intensive high school recruiting by FAMU head coach Rubin Carter and his staff.

Upon his appointment as head coach in July of 2005, Carter pledged to make an effort to reconnect FAMU Football with high school programs in the State of Florida, and this group of youngsters is part of that bumper crop of Sunshine State prospects that signed on with the Rattlers.

“Interestingly enough, two of the Orlando-area players on the Rattler roster went to high school right down the street from the stadium where the annual Classic battle will be played out,” said Alvin Hollins, assistant athletic director for external operations/media relations.

Sophomore center Kwame Akkebela and second-year linebacker Damien Priester both graduated from Orlando’s Jones High School, which is less than a mile away from the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium.

Akkebela, a 6-4, 255-pound lineman, was the former All-State, All-Area and All-District performer. He was the starting center for the Rattlers all season until the FAMU Homecoming game, helping anchor a group which allowed the fewest quarterback sacks in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference so far this year.

He saw action in six games as freshman in 2006, finishing with 12 tackles (nine solo, three assists). He tallied a season high eight tackles (six solo, two assists) against Hampton University.

A two-sport athlete at Jones High, who competed in football and track, Priester was named the team’s Most Valuable Player in 2005, earning All-Metro honors, and All Orange County honors in football. Priester tallied 80 tackles, 10 sacks and 12 tackles for a loss in his junior season, earning him All Orange County Honors.

Redshirt freshman offensive tackle Gerald Poke, a 6-6, 270-pounder from Boone High in Orlando, has been pressed into service as a starter on the offensive line the second half of the season.

Poke, who was redshirted last season, was a three-sport letter winner in basketball, football and track at William R. Boone High School in Orlando, Fla. His senior season, Poke was team captain, a first team All-FNF selection and earned first team 6A All-State honors. In addition, Poke earned FNF first team all-conference honors and was named third team 6A All-State.

The rest of the “Orlando 9” include Derrick Tarver, a redshirt freshman defensive back from nearby Apopka; and five “true” freshmen who started school this fall: wide receiver Kevin Elliott and linebacker Alvis Graham from Colonial High; offensive lineman Carter Franklin from Dr. Phillips High, tight end Max Purcell from Edgewater High, and linebacker Alphonso Walker III, from nearby Eustis.