St. Thomas senior Alters gets late chance to play in All-America game
St. Thomas Aquinas center Dawson Alters was prepared to spend New Year’s Eve in South Florida, but on Dec. 30, he got a call that changed his plans.
The Raiders senior was offered the opportunity to play in Sunday’s Under Armour All-America Game in Orlando, which he gladly accepted.
“I was just thinking it’d be an awesome opportunity,” Alters said. “To be an All-American is just one of the greatest honors you can get and pretty much the greatest honor you can get as a high-school athlete.”
Altersgottheopportunityaftertwo of the centers planning to play in the All-America Game suffered injuries thatkeptthemoutofthegame.Hesaid he got the call Thursday morning and flew to Orlando on Thursday night.
“Each team had two centers,” Alters said, “and the two centers on the Icon team — the one that I was on — got injured, so they needed a center and said I was No. 3.”
Alters, who was a second-team All-County selection, joined the All-American teams for practice on Friday and Saturday, and he had the opportunity to go against some of the nation’s top defensive linemen, including No. 2 overall prospect Walter Nolen and No. 4 overall prospect Travis Shaw and Alabama commit Jaheim Otis.
“I didn’t realize how highly rated they were until I looked them up after practice,” Alters said. “They’re obviously all very, very good and talented players, but so are the players at Aquinas. It’s similar to what I would’ve faced at a normal practice day at Aquinas, but the guys were huge. Oatis ... is like 6-5, maybe 350, 360 (pounds). He’s humongous . ... When I went against him twice in one-on-ones, I shut him down.”
Alters got the chance to play in Sunday’s game and said he enjoyed his time in Orlando. He said he thinks playing against some of the best players in the country will help him next year when he joins the
Vanderbilt football team.
“It was really fun, it was fun to be on national TV again,” Alters said. “It was fun to be able to put the pads on again after I thought I was done for the year. And it was great
to play next to and play against the top competition. I’m also going to be playing against some of those guys next year. A lot of of them are SEC commits and signees — most of them, I think.”