Penguins add highly-regarded RB from Florida

By JOE SCALZO

Vindicator sports staff

YOUNGSTOWN — Three weeks after signing day, YSU coach Eric Wolford is set to add another top recruit.

Running back Adaris Bellamy, who signed with the University of South Florida in 2009 but was told last month there was no longer a scholarship available to him, was expected to sign this week with the Penguins, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

Bellamy is from Denedin High, near Clearwater. It is the same high school as linebacker Ali Cheaib, who signed with YSU earlier this month.

Bellamy spent last fall at Fork Union (Va.) Military Academy, which is the same school former Ursuline High standout Jamel Turner is attending. Turner signed with Ohio State earlier this month.

Bellamy (5-foot-9, 214 pounds), a four-star recruit, was ranked as the 43rd best running back prospect by ESPN and 73rd by Scout.com. Rivals.com rated him the 46th best prospect in the state. Rivals also named him as the second-best inside runner of any back in the 2010 class and compared him to former Michigan standout Mike Hart.

Bellamy would be the third running back in Eric Wolford’s first recruiting class, joining Ursuline High’s Allen Jones and Cincinnati Lakota West’s Jordan Thompson.

Bellamy rushed for 1,950 yards and 22 touchdowns during his junior campaign, garnering class 5A all-state, first team all-county and second team All-Sun Coast honors as a junior. He did not qualify academically for USF, prompting his stint at Fork Union.

“He could play at a higher level, but I think he’ll be a star [at YSU],” his high school coach, Dunedin High’s Mark Everett, told the Times. “He’s excited. He just told me his goal is to win the Walter Payton Award [given to the top player in I-AA football].”

Wolford was an assistant coach on USF’s original staff in 1996 and the assistant who recruited Bellamy is YSU defensive coordinator Rick Kravitz, who worked on USF’s staff from 1996-2005.

scalzo@vindy.com