By KEITH NIEBUHR, Times Staff Writer
Published August 30, 2005
Bert McBride could have waited.
He could have taken a handful of official visits, gotten the free meals and enjoyed all perks that go with being a big-time recruit.
But once Stanford offered McBride a scholarship, the Armwood offensive lineman quickly decided that committing to the Cardinal sooner rather than later was the right thing to do.
"He said, "I don't want to lead all these other schools on,"' said his mother, Alex Sink. "That was his first choice all along."
McBride, a starter for last year's Class 4A state championship squad, is among the area's top recruits. The 6-foot-3, 287-pound senior also considered Vanderbilt and Harvard.
"Bert is going to be one of the best offensive linemen the school has ever had," Armwood coach Sean Callahan said. "He's a lot like (current NFL player and Armwood grad) Mike Pearson was as a football player. Mike is 6-7 and Bert is 6-3, but as far as the way they play and the way they move their feet, Bert is on that level."
McBride, whose father, Bill, was the 2002 Democratic nominee for governor, is the second county player from the class of 2006 to make a public commitment. Jesuit running back Anthony Allen pledged to Louisville in July.
"Every school that I wanted a choice of going to had offered, and I had visited them all over the summer," McBride said. "There was no point in wasting their time or wasting my own.
"The only reason I would have held out is if I wanted another school to offer, but there was no one else. It's the perfect school for me. Academically, it's like the Ivy Leagues, and they play Division I-A football in the Pac-10. That's one of the best conferences I could possibly play in."
McBride has a 6.0 weighted GPA and scored 1450 on the SAT. By committing early, he can concentrate on the season and doesn't have to worry about Stanford running out of scholarships, he said.
"I wanted to make sure that I was not going to be put in that position," McBride said.
The distance from home will be difficult for McBride's parents, but they plan to visit their son often. "We'll be there every weekend when he's playing," Sink said.
--Times staff writer Keith Niebuhr can be reached online at niebuhr@sptimes.com or at 226-3350.
