Coach | 2020 ATH Chris Long Loves To Compete

Notre Dame likes what it’s seen from Chris Long‍ at cornerback and wants to see more. Now, the 2020 New Jersey athlete has to decide whether he sees his future at that position or somewhere else.

Irish defensive backs coach Todd Lyght was at Willingboro High School last week to observe the 6-foot-1, 175-pounder.

“I think the visit went really well,” Willingboro head coach Steve Everette said. “I think Notre Dame would like for him to come out to one of their camps and if he performs well out there, I think it could bode very well for Chris as a student-athlete at Notre Dame.”

Everette said he’s “not quite sure” if Long will make the trip for one of the Irish’s camps early next month.

“We’re letting this recruiting process gear down this week,” the coach explained. “Then, we’ll sit down and try to figure out his camp schedule, getting him all over the place and also seeing what it is he really wants to do as far as position in college. He’s got to kind of figure that out. We haven’t sat down and had the conversation.”

Long has offers from schools like Rutgers, Pitt, Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, Duke, West Virginia, Wake Forest and Temple among others.

“He has a number of schools recruiting him as a defensive back and a number of schools are recruiting him as a wide receiver,” said Everette. “If a kid’s heart is not into playing a position, it can help figure out what schools he’s going to start to lean toward.”

If he does decide he’s open to playing defense on the next level, it’s likely he will take Lyght up on the invitation to camp in South Bend.

Everette isn’t surprised so many schools have interest.

“The first thing is his length,” he said. “He’s a pretty long kid at 6-1. He has really good arm length. His ball skills are pretty good, second to none. He’s got a pretty good vertical jump and he’s got pretty good speed as well. His best 40-time is a 4.5 and he did that as a sophomore. As he gets stronger, all of those schools are looking at the 4.5 and knowing he could get lower.”

Long and a couple of his teammates were singled out and embraced as elite talents going all of the way back to the time they were five or six years old, according to Everette.

“They’ve been followed since they were very, very young,” he said. “He’s looked at with high regard. He has a good family tradition in town. They’ve looked to him to be the next one that gets a full scholarship offer to a big school.

In the classroom, Long has been on the school’s honor roll “the last four or five semesters,” according to Everette.

When it comes to his teammates, Long spends as much time – if not more – speaking to college recruiters about them as he does himself.

And on the field, he just loves to compete.

“Whether it’s 7-on-7 or in the weight room and obviously on Friday nights or Saturdays here in Jersey, he’s always competing. He wants to be the absolute best. His pride has helped us get to heights we haven’t seen in a while around here.”