#CFCOPC: WR Romeo banking on lofty expectations (VIDEO)

Knights standout looking at all options

NFL in crosshairs for Notre Dame Knights wide receiver Divon Romeo

Divon Romeo:

Positions:
Wide Receiver, Running Back

Height/Weight:
5’11, 170 lbs

Teams:
Brampton Bulldogs (OVFL)
Notre Dame Knights (high school: ROPSSAA)

Commitment:
None

Official Visits:
None

Considerations:
Open

Class:
2017

 

Divon Romeo started playing the sport on the playground. In sixth grade, he’d rally up a bunch of his friends and drag them down to a nearby field where they’d play tackle football. The teachers didn’t really condone it, he said, but the group collectively made sure they weren’t caught. He’d never played the sport before, but it came natural to him.

“Soon enough more and more kids started playing with us and it was just what everyone did when recess rolled around. It became the thing to do.”

Having grown up playing hockey, the physical nature of the game was nothing short of familiar. While most kids may be reluctant to play contact sports without adult supervision or pads, to Romeo, playing football on that playground just felt right.

“Making the transition from hockey to football wasn’t a big change,” he said, “especially when I started playing competitively and not just with my friends. I knew how it felt to be hit so I was never scared.”

Romeo has since graduated from “backyard football” and played for the Brampton Bulldogs (OVFL), the Notre Dame Knights of the Region of Peel Secondary Schools Athletic Association (ROPSSAA), and was recently featured on the 2015 Team Ontario roster.

He’s listed as a receiver and running back, but he characterizes himself as a playmaker more than anything else. Heading into his senior season in 2017, Romeo plans on adding size and starting to play defense. He admitted that being able to play both sides of the ball, like many other top recruits, makes him more appealing as a prospect.

But even in being limited to just offense, Romeo has managed to turn heads. He’s a shifty player and makes plays off the line of scrimmage, as seen in his highlight tape (below).

Although he thinks of himself as subdued and grounded, Romeo is contagiously confident – so much so he puts his teammates above himself to get them fired up.

“I am a humble and hard working person. I put my peers before myself and would love to do anything to make the situation better,” Romeo said of his personality. “On the field I will help out in any way possible and if something goes bad I am the first to admit to take the blame because there is always something I could’ve done to prevent that down, to making a block, depth on a route or find the right hole to go through. I know I can ball, but it’s always about the team.”

In the fall, Romeo and the Knights went 7-0-1 and won the championship game – of which he won the MVP for. And the accomplishment not only added to his already high confidence, it fueled him to want more.

“Winning the award made me feel like I could compete against anyone in the country,” he said on realizing his potential. “It also brought to mind, like, ‘hey, why not go as far with football as I possibly can?’.”

The amount of work Romeo puts on the practice field is representative of his love for football. He has fun with the game, and, more importantly, he likes to play. But the reason it translates to success during games, he says, should be credited to those who helped him along the way.

“In football, the coaches are the ones that I look up to because they’ve played the game when they were younger and know everything to it. That’s why I love to meet new coaches and learn off of them – everyone presents different things about the game.”

The way he acts off the field is important to him, too:

“My older brother showed me that as important as football is, there are other ways of being a good man and fulfilling different purposes. He pushes me to be a student-athlete, not just an athlete; he doesn’t tell me what I want to hear but he tells me what I need to hear to do better and stay focused.”

Romeo is committed to bringing a dream to life: he wants to play in the NFL and believes signing for an NCAA school will better his chances of doing so. CIS schools, he mentioned, are a definite possibility, and he is open to offers from them, but he wants to “aim high from the start.” He said he has had interest expressed from a number of schools, both in the CIS and NCAA, however only mentioned Stetson University (Division 1) as a specific option and the likely choice thus far.

In the offseason, he plans on, as aforementioned, gaining strength in hopes of playing some defense, and improving his agility (for route-running, hitting the hole) and hand-eye coordination.

To where he wants to go, it is a tough, long road, but he is ready to put in the work to make it happen.

“I want to make it [to the NFL] and will do anything in my power of will to do that,” he said. “In September, I’m coming back bigger, stronger, and faster to start the season.”

Advocating for football prospects one story at a time.

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