news-record.com

At some point, they’ll run out of superlatives to heap on Keenan Allen. In the meantime, the Northern Guilford football star can savor one more honor Sunday when he’s included in the Parade Magazine All-America team, a national list that in previous years has included such stars as Tim Tebow, Reggie Bush and Joe Montana.

“He’s won just about everything I’ve seen,” Northern Guilford coach Johnny Roscoe said. “I don’t think there’s anything else out there.”

Allen, the News & Record Player of the Year, accounted for 53 touchdowns this season, made 145 tackles and eight interceptions, averaged 43.5 yards per punt and led Northern Guilford to a 12-2 record and its first conference title. He appeared in the U.S. Army All-American Game on national television two weeks ago, forcing two fumbles and nearly running a punt back for a touchdown.

Allen is included as a defensive back on the 58-player Parade list that includes two others from North Carolina: West Rowan’s K.P. Parks, who set the state rushing record; and Athens Drive offensive lineman Robert Crisp, who is committed to N.C. State.

Allen, rated the fifth best prospect in his class by rivals.com, committed to Alabama in November, but made waves last week when he announced he would take an official visit to Clemson during the weekend. He was joined on the trip by his half-brother, former Grimsley quarterback Zach Maynard, who threw for 2,694 yards and 18 touchdowns as a sophomore starter at Buffalo last season but quit the team after coach Turner Gill left to become coach at Kansas.

Rumors have swirled that Allen and Maynard would like to play together. Allen’s mother, Dorie Lang, told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal that “(Allen) wants to go down and visit and make sure.” She could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Roscoe said he hasn’t talked much with Allen since the Army game and that his recruitment is “a parental decision I really don’t get involved with at all.” He has seen Maynard throw recreationally, “and he’s got a rocket for an arm, I know that.”

RAGSDALE STARS COMMIT: Ragsdale’s Walt Sparks made 108 tackles as an all-conference linebacker in the fall, but that’s not what caught the eye of scouts from the University of Richmond. They liked a skill he had been working on with Ragsdale assistant coach Derek Anderson for nearly a decade — the thankless job of long snapping.

“He’s got the perfect body for it,” Tigers head coach Tommy Norwood said of the Ragsdale baseball and football player. “You like that guy who’s kind of tall, and being a baseball kid makes it that much better because all you’re doing is throwing it between your legs.”

Sparks will play some linebacker for the Spiders, but he was recruited primarily as a long snapper, a rarity. He held that spot for the last three years at Ragsdale, with most of his snaps ending up on the foot of kicker Kasey Redfern, who recently committed to Wofford. Redfern, a first-team All-Area selection, kicked seven field goals, put 53 of his 80 kickoffs in the end zone and improved his stock further with a solid showing at last month’s Shrine Bowl.

“We’re losing a lot of good special-teams people,” Norwood said, “and that’s going to be one of the hardest places for us to replace.”

WILDCATS HONORED: Westchester Country Day will enshrine two former athletes in its athletics hall of fame during Friday’s homecoming basketball games. They are former Guilford College women’s basketball coach Jerry Coble Cornwell, who won three state championships as a Wildcat in the mid-1970s, and Mary Katherine Warburton Crane, an All-State volleyball, basketball and soccer player in the late 1990s.

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com