Coach | 2022 ATH Reggie Fleurima "Physical Specimen"

Reggie Fleurima‍ Jr. is a name Notre Dame fans are familiar with and not just because his father played defensive line for the Irish back in the early-1990s.

The younger Fleurima has been on Notre Dame’s recruiting radar for over a year now and he’s made multiple trips to South Bend since then for camps, games and visits.

The 2022 Illinois athlete doesn’t have an offer from Notre Dame yet, but the staff is keeping an eye on him. The Naperville Central High School standout does have offers from Illinois, Michigan State, Nebraska, Purdue, Missouri, Iowa, Virginia Tech and Oregon State among several others.

“Reggie is a freak,” Naperville Central head coach Michael Stine says. “He can step into Division-I locker room right now. He’s a high school sophomore, but he could step in and physically fit. He’s 6-foot-2.5, 6-foot-3. He’s 205 and he’s chiseled. He’s a physical specimen.”

But exactly where he will end up on the field in college remains to be seen. In fact, he’s so versatile, Stine doesn’t know all of the ways he’ll use Fleurima this fall.

“People aren’t 100 percent sure which position he’s going to translate into,” the coach says. “I’m not even 100 percent sure myself. I know he’ll play some wideout for us. He’s getting better and better at that. He’s going to play some H-back for us. We don’t have a traditional tight end in our offense. He’ll probably play some safety, some rolldown nickel for us as well.

“He’s still an in-betweener. What’s he going to play at that next level?”

Fleurima has a preference, but it doesn’t sound like that will be a deal-breaker.

“He loves wide receiver, that’s what he’d like to be,” says Stine. “But he also knows that down the road, that could change. His dad’s a big guy and how big he gets may dictate where he ends up.”

During his last trip to South Bend, Fleurima had conversations with wide receivers coach Del Alexander and defensive backs coach Terry Joseph among others.

“They’re trying to figure out where they see me fitting in with their program,” Fleurima said after the visit. “As of right now, I’m a receiver and an athlete, but if I fill in more and get bigger, Coach Rees said he could see me as an outside linebacker or an athletic tight end type. He said they were still evaluating me with that.”