Quentin Greenlaw is just one of a handful of the Cal Poly football team’s incoming recruits to be putting the finishing touches on noteworthy track seasons.
Greenlaw was part of Rio Mesa High’s 4 x 100 relay team that came in fourth at the CIF-Southern Section Masters Meet on Friday in Norwalk. His foursome qualified for state competition by clocking a 41.64, a year after it posted a 41.52 at the same meet for a Ventura County record.
The 6-foot, 205-pound Greenlaw projects as a linebacker at Cal Poly.
Also doing quite well, in the throwing events, is Nipomo’s Korben Boaz, a 6-1, 250-pound lineman prospect.
Friday, Boaz came in second in both the shot put, at 59-9, and in the discus throw, at 175-8, both state-qualifying marks.
Upon announcing the class, Cal Poly head coach Rich Ellerson stressed the program’s philosophy of focusing on football players who had demonstrated athleticism through backgrounds in other sports — speed for obvious reasons, and strength in the field events to show explosiveness and torque.
As usual, it should be interesting to see where Greenlaw and Boaz — and the rest of the Mustangs’ incomers — fit down the line.
After all, Jordan Beck was recruited as a wide receiver initially.
It’s a credit to Ellerson’s regime that instead of rigidly scouting for position, the approach is largely to scout first for athleticism, and then certain players are molded to fit into certain roles as it’s seen fit — after everyone gets out on the field at the college level.
The approach has thus far proven an effective one because it doesn’t put the staff in a forced position of evaluating freshmen from the first day without any flexibility in terms of their eventual roles.
The state meet will also be in Norwalk, next weekend.