Northeast Spotlight: Prospects on center stage when HS season kicks off
The recruiting spotlight shines bright at certain times of the calendar year and the beginning of the season is one of those times. We take a look at which prospects will be in the spotlight, continuing the series with five prospects from the Northeast region.
THIS SERIES: Midwest prospects on center stage when HS season kicks off | Southeast prospects | Mid-South prospects | Florida prospects | West prospects
Four-star 2025 cornerback Blake Woodby, an Auburn commit, and Saint Frances Academy (Baltimore, Md.) play arguably one of the toughest national schedules in the country.
The Panthers will look to improve from a disappointing 2023 campaign, but the early-season slate won’t be easy. Saint Frances kicks off the season against a strong Pennsylvania program in Pittsburgh Central Catholic, then faces off against New Jersey’s St. Joseph Regional, followed by a cross-country matchup versus Orange Lutheran in California. The next two games come against powerhouses Duncanville (Texas) and Mater Dei (Calif.), which each only lost one game in 2023. All of these games are on road.
Saint Frances also scheduled The Hun School of Princeton (N.J.), Center Grove (Ind.), Clearwater Central Catholic (Fla.), IMG Academy (Fla.) and others.
Against that sort of competition, Woodby will have plenty of chances to prove why he is ranked as a top-40 prospect nationally and a top-five cornerback in the cycle, while perhaps making an argument to be ranked even higher. Now as a senior, Woodby will likely be looked at as a leader by his teammates and will be in the spotlight often in 2024.
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With many of the top 2025 prospects already committed to a school, the 2026 class will certainly be watched even more closely in 2024. One of the more intriguing Northeast prospects in the cycle is defensive end/outside linebacker Zion Elee.
Elee is teammates with Woodby at Saint Frances and obviously will play against that same elite level of competition on a national scale that was mentioned above. As a top-100 overall prospect in his class, Elee will be monitored closely throughout the season and it will be interesting to see if he makes an even bigger jump as a junior. Elee also ranks as the No. 3 player in the state of Maryland and No. 6 weak-side defensive end in the 2026 class.
On Aug. 3, Elee, who has received more than 30 scholarship offers throughout his recruitment, released a top-five schools list of Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State. He does not yet have a commitment timeline in mind, though.
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Archbishop Spalding four-star quarterback Malik Washington decided to stay home and committed to Maryland in June, along with his high school teammate, three-star defensive back, Jayden Shipps.
Washington and Archbishop Spalding will start the 2024 campaign off with a tough task, as the Cavaliers open the season in an anticipated matchup against Ohio’s Archbishop Hoban (13-2 in 2023). Spalding also has early matchups with Dematha Catholic (Md.), Archbishop Stepinac (N.Y.) and McDonogh (Md.), and later a contest against Concordia Prep (Md.) – a school that’s only loss in 2023 was to Spalding.
Washington is a Rivals250 prospect in the 2025 class, ranks as the No. 4 player in the state of Maryland and the No. 16 pro-style quarterback in the cycle. Washington also earned his spot as one of the top quarterbacks in the nation as an Elite 11 finalist and now will look to cap off his high school career with a big senior season.
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There aren’t many more physically imposing prospects in the 2026 class than five-star Georgetown Prep (North Bethesda, Md.) offensive tackle Immanuel Iheanacho, who checked in at 6-foot-7 and 365 pounds at the Rivals Five-Star event in Jacksonville in late June.
Despite the massive frame, Iheanacho moves well and has good feet, to go along with his excellent length. The Five-Star event was Iheanacho’s first true showcase against elite competition on the national scale and he more than held his own. Now, it will be interesting to watch how that translates when the pads are on this fall.
On paper, Georgetown Prep’s 2024 schedule doesn’t look as intimidating as some of the other schools mentioned in this column, but there are some interesting matchups on the docket, including a contest against a Benedictine team that lost just once and won a Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) Division I state championship last year. Georgetown Prep also has games against Episcopal (Va.), Loyola Blakefield (Md.) and a Woodberry Forest (Va.) squad that features the No. 1 running back in the 2026 class in Savion Hiter, another 2026 Rivals250 prospect in wide receiver Dyzier Carter and three-star athlete Sheldon Robinson.
As a five-star recruit and top-10 player nationally, Iheanacho will be under a microscope regardless of the competition.
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Cameron Smith recently flipped his commitment from Duke to Penn State. Now, the question for the high-three-star athlete/linebacker and U.S. Army All-American selection is can he play himself into four-star status with a strong senior campaign this fall? He’ll have many chances to make his argument based on his play.
Smith plays for St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia and is looking to lead the Hawks to a third-straight Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) Class 6A state championship.
However, the schedule is challenging. St. Joseph’s begins the 2024 season at St. Edward in Ohio, a team that went 15-1 and won the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) Division I state championship in 2023. The Hawks then play New York’s Erasmus Hall, which went 10-2 last year, and then have a date with Our Lady of Good Counsel (Md.), which lost only one game in 2023 (to St. Edward) and won the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title.
There will certainly be a lot of eyes on the new Penn State commit and the St. Joseph’s Prep team as a whole, especially with many intriguing matchups early on. The Hawks have dominated in Pennsylvania, winning eight state titles in 11 years.
