Father | Notre Dame A Perfect Fit For Elite 2025 ATH Dallas Golden
Notre Dame was always going to check a lot of boxes for Dallas Golden, but the Irish staff absolutely won the recruitment of the elite 2025 Florida athlete.
“I think it's a great fit for him; just the culture, the coaches, it is just a great fit for him,” Golden’s father, Pelham Golden told Irish Sports Daily.
“We always felt the way they recruited him, we felt that we were always a priority. We're just blessed that we're a part of the Notre Dame family now.”
Many of the reasons why Golden and the Golden Domers were such a good match has to do with where the 6-foot-1, 180-pounder is coming from.
“We come from a small private school, Berkeley Prep,” Mr. Golden says. “Not a lot of students. I'm telling you, Berkeley and Notre Dame eerily remind me of each other; a great group of kids, great academics and all solid sports programs. Just the culture.
“At Notre Dame, you're going to be surrounded by like-minded individuals where the priority is not just football; it's about more so the 40 instead of the four.”
Golden had real-life evidence of that through former Berkely Prep athletes and current Notre Dame athletes Tre and Troy Reader.
“Our family is like family,” Mr. Golden says of his family and the Readers. “They know Dallas personally. They told Dallas and told me, 'Notre Dame is second to none. There won't be a drop off at all when comparing Berkeley to Notre Dame; great culture, great people.'
“Believe it or not, they actually had a big hand in the recruiting process because we talked to them often. I talked to Nick Reader, who is their dad. He's up in South Bend a lot. He never pressured us to commit to Notre Dame. He was always, 'Just take your time. I can say with me, being a part of Notre Dame family, it's one of the best decisions that my kids made to go there. It is life-changing.'
“That always resonated with me, always, when he said it was life-changing.”
So Notre Dame started in a good place with Golden, but the Irish didn’t just maintain that spot, they enhanced it with every and every interaction by Marcus Freeman, Al Golden, Mike Mickens and Chad Bowden.
“I don't want to say that the needle didn't move at the other schools, but it just moved more for Notre Dame,” Mr. Golden says. “The way that Notre Dame recruits, it doesn't feel like it's overbearing.
“They've always told us, 'You are a priority to us.' We never had lapses in the recruiting where we wouldn't hear from him for two or three weeks. We never had that. Coach Freeman would actually call. It was consistent. Coach Mickens would call. Chad would call. We just always felt like a priority. There were a few times we've actually had Zoom calls with all the coaches and every time we went up there, it was like, 'Dallas, you are a priority. Whenever you want to commit, you'll always have a spot at Notre Dame.' They've been extremely loyal to us.”
It was consistent.
“Whenever we call, they pick up the phone,” Mr. Golden continues. “If we have any questions, it's never, 'OK, we'll get back with you.' The answers to the questions are always there. We just felt wanted. We just felt like we were priority; felt like we weren't going to be tolerated, felt like that we were wanted.”
But Notre Dame could only say so much and show him so much. In the end, the Irish and Golden’s parents knew it would be up to him.
“Chad had always told him, 'Dallas, when you know Notre Dame is right for you, there's nothing that your parents could say. There's nothing I could say. You're going to have that gut feeling. It's going to feel right,'” Mr Golden explained.
The only thing Golden’s parents asked was that their son let them know first to avoid making any rash decisions. He did just that on the way home from a workout one day.
“It just totally caught me off guard,” his father says. “He was like, 'Dad, I think I'm going to commit to Notre Dame.' I said, 'Really?' He said, 'Yeah, I prayed about it. I feel good about it. I've just got a gut feeling. I feel good.'”
On April 28th, Golden publicly announced his commitment to the Irish.
And his father could not have been more proud.
“I'm Dallas's biggest critic,” he says. “I'm his biggest fan, but I'm also his dad.
“I'm so proud of him because he put himself through a lot to get where he's at. Berkeley Prep is an extremely challenging school. He wanted to make Dean's List, he made Dean's list. He set some goals off the field and on the field it was to be as productive as he was. I am extremely, extremely proud of him. He's a good kid. He does things the right way, man, and he's humble.
“It was his decision to commit to Notre Dame, but the fact that he could handle coaches still trying to recruit him and to stay solid and say, 'You know what? We're 100 percent Notre Dame.' I'm just so proud of him and I'm so happy for him that he's reached his goal to play Division-I football and Notre Dame is a great fit for him.”
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