Sixteen DeMatha Seniors Earn Football Scholarships

For 16 DeMatha seniors, their years of hard work has paid off with college football scholarships.

“I’m very proud of all these young men,” said Stags coach Bill McGregor, who led DeMatha to the 2024 WCAC football championship and 25th league title in school history.

The class of 2025 is headlined by first-team All-Mets Jacob Wallace, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound defensive back who’s going to Iowa; and Bud Coombs, a running back who plans to play football and baseball at Maryland.

Linebacker Noah Chambers (Virginia Tech) rounds out the Stags’ Power Four signees. As a senior, he recorded 51 tackles, including nine for loss, had five sacks and returned an interception for a touchdown.

And interest in DeMatha juniors has picked up in the past few weeks. After new North Carolina coach Bill Belichick caused a frenzy with his first visit to campus Jan. 16, he got a commitment from Stags junior offensive lineman Zion Smith. In addition, junior wideout Lavar Keys confirmed that he will be taking his 4.3 speed to Penn State’s Happy Valley.

Players can’t sign their scholarship offers until their senior years.

Coombs, who's also an All-American outfielder, rushed 201 times for 1,106 yards (5.5 avg.) and scored 11 TDs.

Wallace, who also stars for the 19-5 DeMatha basketball team, got a big assist from McGregor when Iowa had a scholarship open and a coach called McGregor to ask if he had any uncommitted athletes talented enough to play major college football.

“I told him about Jacob, but after an assistant coach met with him last week, he was concerned about his size,” McGregor said. “But rather than give up on him, he went to see Jacob play basketball that night [at Bishop McNamara]. After seeing how tough and athletic he was, he offered him a scholarship.”

Wallace, who had seven interceptions, two fumble recoveries and scored three defensive touchdowns in 2024, flew to Iowa for an official visit Saturday morning. He committed to the Hawkeyes before flying home Sunday.

Denzel Gardner, the only four-year starting quarterback the Stags have ever had, was all set to commit to Marshall during the early signing period in December. But when coach Charles Huff left to become head coach at Southern Mississippi, Gardner decided to put his pen back in his pocket.

On Wednesday, he made it official by signing with Southern Miss – Brett Favre’s alma mater. Gardner, the all-time winningest quarterback in DeMatha history (37-8. 822), threw 14 TD passes last year and ran for 11 more. He is one of two Stags’ signal callers (Scott McBrien, 1998) to not throw an interception his senior year.

Here’s the full list of signees:

Bentley Allen, OL (Howard

Alex Amaya, K/P (Morgan State)

Terry Amos, DB (Millersville State)

Mark Beasley, DL (Stony Brook)

Devon Bertrand, DB (Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania)

Noah Chambers, LB (Virginia Tech)

Anthony Chuman, OL/DL (St. Francis, Pa.)

Bud Coombs, RB (Maryland)

Naim Dominique, DL (Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania)

Denzel Gardner, QB (Southern Mississippi)

Nate Hampton, OL (St. Francis, Pa.)

Jermaine Minnis, LB (Ohio)

Luke O’Hare LS (Marshall)

Aiden Smith, OL (Brown)

Kelton Sparks, OL (Morehead State)

Jacob Wallace, DB (Iowa)

Chris McManes (mick-maynz) is DeMatha Catholic High School's communications manager.