High School Football: Greenon standout transferring to Northmont

Now Rice wants to see what he can do in Division I in the Greater Western Ohio Conference against talented teams such as Springfield, Wayne, Springboro and Centerville. Rice will also face non-conference foes Dublin Coffman and Pickerington North, both Division I playoff teams last fall.

“Hopefully I’ll be playing at the highest level once I get to college, and I need to go somewhere that’s going to better prepare me for that,” Rice said. “Also it’s going to set me up to get exposure to the bigger colleges.”

Rice is ranked as a three-star recruit by 247sports.com. He has FCS offers from Bucknell, Illinois State, Bryant, Fordham, Elon and Rhode Island. Rice hasn’t been able to visit any of those schools so he isn’t ruling any of them out. His goal, however, is to have the kind of season against top high school competition that leads to offers from programs in Power 5 conferences such as the Big Ten.

“It’s always been my dream to play college football at the highest level,” Rice said. “With the hard work that I’ve put in, I think I can definitely be one of those guys that goes on to play at the highest level.”

Northmont’s offense will give the 6-foot-3 Rice the chance to show what he can do. The Thunderbolts are coming off a 6-5 season and playoff appearance behind the top passing offense in the GWOC. Keaton Kesling, now at Wittenberg, led the league with 2,991 passing yards and 33 touchdowns.

Northmont has been speedy and productive at the receiver position in recent years. Leading that group this year will be senior Markus Allen, who has committed to Michigan. Allen, a three-star prospect, set the school record last year with 1,087 receiving yards.

“It’s a really pass-friendly offense, and obviously that gets me fired up as a quarterback who likes to throw the ball quite a bit,” Rice said. “With the weapons that we’ve got on the outside, we can do a lot of great things this season.”

Rice will be living in the Northmont school district with his mother, Adina Young, so he won’t have to sit out any games as a transfer. Young is moving back from Florida and will get to see her son play a full season for the first time since his freshman year.

“I know she’s really excited, and it makes me glad that she’ll be able to see every game this year,” Rice said. “Hopefully we have a season.”

Greenon has a big hole to fill for what the Knights expect to be another winning season in pursuit of the school’s first playoff berth. Coach Josh Wooten will have 14 returning starters, including third-team all-Ohio receiver Kameron Cox and transfer Trevor Stewart from Urbana. Stewart led the Hillclimbers in rushing last season.

“I didn’t leave Greenon because I didn’t like the people there or anything like that – definitely not for that reason,” Rice said. “I liked every player that I played with, I was cool with every coach on the staff and they helped my game tremendously. And they were really good dudes to me.”