Notre Dame Offer "Means A Lot" To 2024 DL Deyvid Palepale
It didn’t take long for Deyvid Palepale to become a fan of Al Washington.
The 2024 defensive lineman received an offer to play for Notre Dame from Washington last week.
“I really love the guy,” Palepale said of Washington after their phone call. “He's very personable. He's more interested in the person more than the player and I think that really stands out to me.
After being born in Alaska, Palepale played at Hempfield High School in Pennsylvania, but will be transferring to IMG Academy to play his senior season.
His offer sheet also includes schools like Penn State, Rutgers, Miami, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Vanderbilt and USC among others.
Washington explained why he feels Palepale would be a good fit for the Irish.
“He really just complimented me on my aggressiveness and my style of play and how it fits with Notre Dame's defensive scheme,” Palepale said.
“It means a lot simply because the history of Notre Dame and how they've been able to produce NFL talent and just getting to the national level. It means so much.”
Palepale isn’t sure when, but he wants to get to South Bend eventually.
“I want to get on campus and really get to see it and get the feel of the whole campus,” he said. “Then from there, catching a game, see the gameday environment. That's one of my biggest things because I always hear about the Notre Dame games. That's on my bucket list. That's pretty much what I have for now.”
He’s got some other trips in mind as well.
“Miami, I really want to go to simply because they've been showing a lot of love,” he said. “Then, Rutgers, they've been hitting me up a lot and their staff that's been hitting me up is like Coach Washington. They're very personable and that's one reason why I want I make it up there.”
He believes the move to IMG will help prepare him for college.
“The competition level isn't that great out here, but going down there, it just opened up all the doors,” he said.
Initially, he hoped to have a decision by the end of this summer, but isn’t in a rush and could wait until after his senior season.
“Education is the biggest thing for me,” said Palepale, who is deciding between Civil Engineering and Business as his major.
“The graduation rate of the football team and then what will help me succeed on the national level, if I'm good enough and I choose to go to NFL. Those are probably the biggest factors to me.”
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