“It being my senior year coming up, I haven’t had any offers yet so I just wanted to go out there and show them what I can do and hopefully get an offer from them,” Spears said. “They’ve been talking to me a little bit before the camp. They’ve sent me a few handwritten letters.”
Spears, 6-foot-1, 215-pound linebacker, didn’t leave Chapel Hill with an offer, but made an impression on UNC’s coaching staff.
“I felt like things went real well,” Spears said. “Coach [Tommy] Thigpen, he said that I looked really good and I was real impressive. He said that he would like to work with me more.”
In addition to UNC, Spears, who is hearing from several schools within the state, has camped at Duke and plans to camp at NC State, and Wake Forest.
“He’s just a great kid and then you can see he has great worth ethic – the kid works extremely hard,” Chatham (Va.) Hargrave Military Academy head coach Robert Prunty said. “…The kid benches 385 pounds, squats almost 600 pounds, and he runs well. You can see the kid just needs to be polished.
“I know one thing talking to the coaches - they think this kid is a very hard worker, including every coach I’ve talked to at [North] Carolina.”
Spears’ recruitment is suffering from a hectic high school career that has included a couple of transfers and playing out of position at one stop.
Spears spent his freshman and sophomore years playing on Hargrave Military Academy’s varsity high school squad. He then transferred to Chapel Hill (N.C.) High before last fall.
At Chapel Hill, the Tigers already had an established linebacker corps. Thus, Spears, a newcomer, was moved to nose guard.
During the spring, Spears transferred to Chapel Hill (N.C.) East High School.
“I wanted to get the opportunity to get to play middle linebacker and [Chapel Hill] just wasn’t offering me that at the time so I had to take my chance and transfer in to East Chapel Hill,” Spears said. “Also I technically live in East Chapel Hill’s district.”
Second-year head coach Darian Harris has been working towards changing the fortunes and atmosphere at East Chapel Hill, which has a combined 3-30 record the past three years. Harris arrived at East after serving as offensive coordinator for Durham (N.C.) Southern, which had a 21-6 record during his tenure as an assistant.
Spears plans to contribute to East Chapel Hill’s turnaround.
“My goal is to give my team my best and hopefully coming out with a winning season,” Spears said. “They have a great new coach in Coach Harris and he hired a great coaching staff. They’re really trying to change things around.”
Since transferring from Hargrave, Spears frequently returns to Chatham to work out with Prunty. He will continue to work out with Prunty and Hargrave’s post graduate team this summer and following his senior football season.
“I want him to continue to work on his speed as far as getting into his drops and I want to continue to work on his agility,” Prunty said. “Another year with me, I just think this kid is going to be a good player.”
Prunty believes Spears is going to be a force by the time he reaches the collegiate level.
“I’m going to make this kid a player,” Prunty said. “This kid is going to be a player, because he’s going to have a whole year with me. I’ve coached Ahmad Brooks, I’ve coached Zach Brown, I’ve coached some of the best linebackers in the country – everybody knows that.”
Spears hopes to continue his football career in Chapel Hill.
“UNC is my hometown so that’s my first choice in colleges,” Spears said.
George Spears Profile