GALA AFFAIR AT RANCHO: ALLEN SIGNING--WITH DRUM LINE, STUDENTS, COACH, PARENTS ON HAND, STAR PLAYER OFFICIALLY COMMITS TO SAC STATE

Rancho Cotate's star football player, Cody Allen, is likely to remember the

day he signed a national letter of intent to attend Sacramento State.

During an early Wednesday morning break at the Rohnert Park campus,

serenaded by a drum line from the Rancho Cotate marching band, and observed by

a large gathering of students in the campus quad, Allen, a standout

quarterback and defensive back, officially became a Sacramento State Hornet.

''It was great,'' said Allen, whose parents were on hand as well as Rancho

football coach Ed Conroy and athletic director Henri Sarlatte and other school

officials. Allen signed in two places of the five-page document that gives him

a full athletic scholarship at Sacramento State, a DivisionIAA school.

Allen, who has been told he'll be converted to a weakside linebacker, plans

on attending late training camp in June before the first practice in late

summer.

A handful of Redwood Empire players signed with four-year colleges on

Wednesday, the official signing date of the NCAA, most following verbal

commitments by the athletes.

Cardinal Newman quarterback Randy Wright signed his letter with UC Davis,

Ukiah quarterback Kyle Morris signed with Idaho State and two linemen, Korey

Langhals of Windsor and Garrett Edwards of Ukiah, signed with Division II

Humboldt State. Bud Guinn of Rancho Cotate plans on signing with Div.II New

Mexico Highlands and Cardinal Newman's Joe Ferguson is set on signing with

Truman State, a Div.II college in Missouri.

Only Allen, Wright and Morris received full scholarships.

For fans of Empire high school football, there would seem to be some

prominent names missing, such as Jeff Badger and Jacob Gowan of Cardinal

Newman, Matt O'Brien of Casa Grande, Adam Murray of Rancho Cotate and Mike

Mulas of Sonoma.

For whatever reason, most often size and speed related, the Empire's best

are bypassed by the larger college programs. Sometimes the players wind up

going to a junior college and then get better offers. Badger and Murray have

indicated they may take that route.

Badger, an outstanding running back and linebacker who played in this

season's DivisionIII state championship game against St. Bonaventure, received

an offer early by the Air Force Academy, but decided he didn't want to commit

to the nine years required.

Badger said Wednesday he's hoping some Big Sky or WAC schools didn't fill

out their rosters on signing day. He said it could take a couple of months for

those schools to finalize the rosters.

Plenty of DivisionII and small colleges have shown interest in players like

Badger, Murray and O'Brien, but when it comes to large schools, such as the

Pac-10, most have asked those players if they're interested in walking-on, a

sort of no-strings attached invitation, but without a scholarship, at least

until the player makes the team.

Gowan, whom many consider the best offensive lineman in the county this

year, has received plenty of interest, but is leaning toward the Ivy League,

specifically Cornell, Brown and Princeton. Stanford has expressed interest and

wants Gowan to walk on. As a student with a GPA over 4.0, Gowan qualifies for

academic scholarships. The Ivy League schools don't give athletic

scholarships.

''It's a little different playing football there (in the Ivy League),''

Gowan said. ''Instead of playing in front of 60 thousand, it's more like 10 or

15 thousand.''

Gowan, who got so tired of the phone calls and correspondence, didn't

answer his cell phone last week and let his mother handle the recruiters.

Gowan said he's anxious for it to be over and hopes to have a decision by next

week.

Petaluma's Nick Marsh turned down a full ride to Nevada-Reno as a

place-kicker/punter. Marsh, who won a competition in Las Vegas involving over

300 punters, hoped to draw an offer from one of the major college programs.

Utah, Stanford and New Mexico have shown interest and Marsh figured he'd have

to wait after Wednesday's signing date to see which schools may have lost

kickers to the competition.

Another top kicker from the Empire, Casa Grande's Connor Derby, will walk

on at Sacramento State.