Reeves and Williams Sign Letters of Intent to Attend Ohio State

It's official.

After months (and years) of speculation and build-up, Easton's Armani Reeves and Camren Williams will be shipping up to Columbus, Ohio next fall to play for Urban Meyer and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Both Reeves and Williams signed their National Letters of Intent during a press conference Thursday afternoon at Catholic Memorial High School.

"It’s definitely special," Reeves said. "I didn’t know if I was going to make it this far in football and it’s just been a blessing to go through all of this and go through the whole football experience with recruiting along with Cam and this has been really great. I can’t wait to start playing football in college."

Reeves, a defensive back, and Williams, a linebacker, have been among the most highly recruited high school players in the country since beginning their playing days at Catholic Memorial.

While both decided earlier this year to attend Penn State University, a last minute switch came after allegations of sexual abuse involving Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky arose. The scandal, and alleged cover-up, led to the firing of head coach Joe Paterno, who died last month.

The Penn State scandal threw an extra hook into what was already a difficult decision.

"It was tough," said Williams. "Especially after originally deciding to go to Penn State. I was the second commit to Penn State’s class and I really reached out to a lot of kids and talked to a lot of kids about coming to Penn State and I developed some great relationships with some of the future players there. Just leaving there and going somewhere else was tough. In the end I realized that Ohio State was the best option for me. In the end, that’s what made it a lot easier."

Luckily for the two, they always had each other. From deciding to head to West Roxbury to attend high school, to deciding on Penn State, to switching to Ohio State, Reeves and Williams' have run parallel in their decisions.

When Williams decided on Ohio State instead of Penn State, Reeves had a tough decision to make. He narrowed his new choices down to two bitter archrivals: Michigan and Ohio State.

"I really wanted to make sure I picked the right school for myself," he said. "It was tough picking between Michigan and Ohio State towards the end, because they’re both great schools and they both offer the same things as far as what I wanted to do."

Both players agreed that going through the process together has made it easier. They had support from other C.M. teammates as well. A.J. Doyle, of Lakeville decided on UMass to play football and Donovan Henry, of Sharon decided to run Div. 1 track and field at Northeastern.

"It’s cool," Williams said. "It’s cool to have another person to reference schools and to be able to have somebody to go through the same thing. We’ll go through today and we’ll have several calls from different reporters and we’ll be able to relate to that – just having the opportunity to go through the same positives and negatives throughout that process."

Williams will also have plenty of support throughout his college career. His brother, Brennan, is a junior offensive lineman for the University of North Carolina and his father, Brent, played D-1 college football at Toledo before becoming a defensive end for the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.

But most of all, as they have throughout their entire playing careers, Reeves and Williams will rely on each other's support.

"You get homesick," Williams said. "Having the opportunity to have my brother and best friend – it will be a lot easier."