St. Clairsville senior-to-be Dan Monteroso received three football offers in the span of one week in May.
Less than two months later, the Red Devils' all-Ohioan has made up his mind.
After visiting both the University of Iowa and Boston College University in the last two weeks, Monteroso called the Eagles' coaching staff and gave them a verbal commitment to become the 10th member of their 2013 recruiting class this past weekend.
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DAN MONTEROSO
"I always dreamt about playing college football because I had grown up around it," Monteroso said. "This whole process has been a whirlwind and it actually happened quicker than I would have liked, but I am happy with my decision."
Monteroso informed the B.C. staff on Saturday after he made the call to the Hawkeyes to inform them they had finished second in the quest to land his services.
"The Iowa coaches were disappointed, but they respected my decision," Monteroso said. "The Boston College coaches were really excited. They actually told a kid, who had an offer from Oklahoma, too, no because they were waiting on my decision, so that made me feel pretty good."
The Eagles, who compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference, have a new offensive coordinator in Doug Martin and are expected to open up the offense and passing game more in the coming years.
"I really enjoyed the coaches," Monteroso said. "They're planning on throwing the ball a lot, and as I receiver I certainly liked hearing that."
Another big selling point for Monteroso was the city of Boston itself. Boston College is actually located in suburban Chestnut Hill, but all of Beantown played a role.
"The city is just amazing," Monteroso said. "I loved it there. Everything about Boston was great."
Monteroso is coming off a junior football season in which he caught 10 touchdowns despite missing the first three games as he recovered from off-season shoulder surgery. He's been a three-year regular for Coach Brett McLean's Red Devils.
"I have always felt that Dan was going to have these kinds of opportunties since he showed up at practice as a freshman," McLean said. "I truly think that any college that had added Dan is getting a great athlete, a great student and most importantly a great young man."
Monteroso, who is leaving for Florida for three weeks for an AAU basketball tournament next week, is happy to have this decision out of the way, so all of his focus can be on the upcoming season, which has high expectations surrounding the Red Devils.
"Not only is it nice for me, but it's also nice to get out of the way for my teammates, so they know my focus is in one place and one place only," Monteroso said.
The 6-3, 180 pounder won't officially become a member of the Eagles' program until Feb. 6, which is National Letter of Intent Day for Division I programs.
"The coaches have all talked to me about playing as a freshman, so I'll just keep working hard and then when I get there we'll see what happens," Monteroso said.
Each of the schools that Monteroso has talked to mentioned the possibility of graduating early, but he shot that idea down quickly.
"I told every school I had no desire to (graduate early) because of basketball," Monteroso said.
On the hardwood, Monteroso received nearly every postseason award imaginable, including first-team all-Ohio and Division II co-player of the year after leading the Red Devils to the Division II state tournament.
He's the leading scorer in St. C. school history and should flirt with the 2,000-point mark.
Monteroso's parents - Jeff and Cathy - were behind his decision 100 percent.
"Both of my parents said they didn't want to have much say in my decision," Monteroso said. "They said, 'we can't tell you where or how to spend the next four or five years of your life."
Along with Boston College and Iowa, Monteroso also had offers from Duke, Ohio University and Bowling Green.
Staskey may be reached at sstaskey@timesleader-online.com
