Monroe’s Vonte Wilson signs with Mount St. Joseph

ALBANY — He loved watching stars such as Adrian Peterson and Ray Lewis and was influenced by their work ethic. Vonte Wilson adopted their work ethic and it paid off as the Monroe High School defensive end signed a letter-of-intent Monday afternoon to play college football at Mount St. Joseph University, an NCAA Division III school in Cincinnati.

“My favorite team growing up was the Eagles, but I really didn’t have a favorite player,” Wilson said. “I liked Adrian Peterson because of how tough he is and how hard he runs, and I idolized Ray Lewis because of how hard he pursued the football.”

Wilson had offers from St. Olaf University (Minn.), Millsaps College (Miss.), Point University and Kentucky Christian, but chose Mount St. Joseph.

“The reason I chose Mount St. Joseph was because they are among the top 50 schools in the U.S. and one of the top four schools in Ohio as far as my major, sports management,” Wilson said. “They had my major and they have a very good football team.”

Wilson began playing football when he was seven and played on both the offensive and defensive lines while in youth football. That experience helped him later in his high school career.

During his senior season, he accumulated 62 tackles, four tackles for a loss and two sacks for the Tornadoes.

“Vonte has really been one of our most-improved players from his junior year to his senior year,” Monroe head coach Charles Truitt said. “He continued to work and got better every day in practice, and was really one of the cornerstones of our defense.”

Brentavious Glanton, who signed with Georgia Tech, has been impressed with Wilson’s character and unselfishness.

“Vonte has great character. He’s a great person,” Glanton said. “He wanted to help the team no matter what position he was playing. He started playing defensive tackle, then I filled in and played defensive tackle and he switched to defensive end. He’s just a great person at heart, and a great athlete.”