Colzie achieves dream by signing with Notre Dame - Oconee Enterprise

Deion Colzie’s longtime dream came true last week.

Athens Academy’s star wide receiver officially signed to join the football team at Notre Dame on a scholarship. He was so excited to officially become part of the Fighting Irish that he faxed in his forms at 7 a.m. last Wednesday, Dec. 16, the first day that high school football players could sign scholarship offers.

Later that morning, Colzie was honored in a formal ceremony held inside Athens Academy’s Sinkwich Spartan Center.

“It felt amazing,” Colzie said on the big day. “Ever since I was young, I've always dreamed about signing to my dream college to pursue my dreams in football and academically as well. I just feel like it's a dream come true.”

Notre Dame, located near South Bend, Indiana, was Colzie’s dream school despite the fact it’s located far away from the Athens area.

That’s because, for Colzie, Notre Dame offers the complete package.

“The academics could speak for itself,” Colzie said. “It's a great, prestigious university. My parents have been Notre Dame fans their whole lives so I kind of grew up on Notre Dame. The football team is, of course, good. Not only the football team but the school itself and the brand and the type of education I can get and what a degree would mean from there, all of that ties in together to make that my dream school. To get the offer from them was pretty special.”

As a consensus four-star wide receiver, Colzie had his pick of numerous scholarship offers.

He committed to Notre Dame a while ago but de-committed for a brief period. During that time, Notre Dame maintained communication with Colzie.

The program’s level of dedication to Colzie is ultimately was swung him back to a commitment there and, last week, the official acceptance of Notre Dame’s scholarship offer.

“They've been communicating with me since my freshman year,” Colzie said. “Even when I de-committed once, they still were willing to restart communicating and so I really appreciated that.

It didn’t hurt that Notre Dame can offer Colzie a chance at regular marquee games to put himself on a national stage.

“They've got the contract with NBC, so they're on TV every Saturday and my family and friends can watch me play every Saturday,” Colzie said. “I'm really excited about that and just going out there and competing in front of the world and showing everyone what I've got.”

During the ceremony last week, Athens Academy athletic director Kevin Petroski told the crowd that Colzie will nearly live out a dream of his own. Petroski wished to play basketball at Notre Dame before, as he put it, “genetics eventually took over and that didn’t happen.”

“We're very honored to have him representing the University of Notre Dame and Athens Academy,” Petroski said. “This is something that many people dream of and he's going to get to fulfill that dream.”

Colzie’s head coach at Athens Academy, Josh Alexander, said he himself had dreamed of playing football for the Fighting Irish.

“It's been a great honor to coach Deion and watch him grow the last four years,” Alexander said. “Some of the cool things about Deion is he's not just him being a great football player but watching him mentor young players.”

Colzie said he is in the process of deciding what to study. He will likely pick either business management or marketing.

When he gets started working with Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly and his staff, though, Colzie knows exactly what he wants to accomplish on the field.

“I want to improve my speed and my agility,” Colzie said. “Me being a bigger guy, that's kind of a weakness for a lot of guys. I just feel like I need to work on my speed a little bit more and my ability to change directions. I feel like that will be very key when I get to college.”

Athens Academy is a perennial state playoff team that is no stranger to the Class A-Private state championship game.

Colzie said he was proud to be a piece of that winning tradition.

“I came here my freshman year and I saw plenty of people in front of me do the same thing,” he said. “I just feel like I made my statement here. It's definitely been a great four years.”