The "San Diego State Five" nearly became the "Aztecs Seven."
Oceanside High football player Thomas Molesi, holding his fingers about a quarter-inch apart, said he came "this close" to joining Pirates teammates Jake Fehly, JJ Whittaker, King Holder, Rene Siluano and Kenny Galea'i at San Diego State.
Instead, Molesi stayed solid and signed a national letter of intent on Wednesday to play football at Oregon State.
Escondido's record-setting running back Ricky Seale said "it was a 50-50 deal" before he chose Stanford over San Diego State.
"We don't know Ricky that well, but I know Tim Zier," Holder said of the Escondido football star who signed to play baseball with the Aztecs.
"Tim and Ricky are tight, so we told Tim to work on Ricky to get him down to State. And we'd keep working on Thomas to get him to join us.
"It was close with Thomas, real close, but we all respect his decision to go to Oregon State."
Seale twice rushed for more than 2,000 yards in a season ---- 2,663 as a junior and 2,478 as a senior. He is the San Diego Section's leading career rushing leader with 6,694 yards, averaging 7.9 yards a carry. No other San Diego back has touched the 6,000-yard mark. Seale also scored 81 career rushing touchdowns, including 32 as a junior and 35 as a senior.
Seale, who was ranked the 28th-best running back prospect in the nation by Scout.com, earned a four-star rating as a defensive back by Rivals.com and was listed as the 23rd-best cornerback prospect in the nation.
But Seale said he's a running back.
"People were pushing me to stay local," Seale said. "The bottom line, though, is that it's my decision.
"San Diego State was behind me 100 percent. Even after I told them I was going to Stanford, they wished me well. But I wanted to go to Stanford."
Seale said waiting to get admitted was the toughest part.
The admission process at Stanford is long and complicated.
Seale's test scores were in order, and he had the right core classes, but he had to get Bs on three advanced placement classes, which he did. There was a problem with letters of recommendation arriving in the right hands at Stanford, but the problem was resolved.
"I heard I was admitted and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, it's finally over,' " Seale said. "It was a tough because I was waiting to get admitted. It was really an up-and-down time."
Seale said he chose Stanford partly because of the prestige of a degree from the school.
But head coach Jim Harbaugh, who played in the NFL and coached at the University of San Diego, also played a big part in the decision.
"Coach Harbaugh is still a teenager," Seale said. "He's one of those out-there guys. But he won me over. And when he called to tell me I was in, I said, 'Oh my God. Thank you.' "
Oregon State head coach Mike Riley played a big part in Molesi's decision to play for the Beavers.
"I would have liked to play with my boys at San Diego State, but I'm glad I stuck with my decision," said Molesi, the CIF San Diego Section defensive player of the year. "The guys worked on me, and they almost had me.
"I'm 18 years old, and I've been in Oceanside my whole life. I wanted a new experience. Corvallis is a college town, and I loved it. The people are friendly. And Coach Riley is a man of his word. I had tears of joy when I signed that letter of intent."
Whittaker had originally verbally committed to Arizona, but a coaching change on the defensive side in Tucson forced the cornerback to change his mind.
"I'm more than happy the way things worked out," Whittaker said. "The biggest factor in choosing San Diego State was that they continued to recruit me. So it was a no-brainer to choose the Aztecs."
Like Whittaker, Holder will play cornerback at San Diego State. Galea'i will play on the interior of the defensive line. Fehly wants to play a blitzing linebacker.
"I don't know if that's left, right or middle, but blitzing is my thing," Fehly said. "This is such a great opportunity for the five of us ---- and almost all seven if we could have convinced Thomas and Ricky Seale to come ---- to play together at the same school. It's really awesome.
"We've had a lot of success at Oceanside (winning four Division II section titles and two state championships in the last four years). We want to continue that success, bring that same winning attitude to San Diego State."
Fehly said he chose San Diego State over Wyoming and New Mexico State.
Galea'i chose the Aztecs over Fresno State, San Jose State and Wyoming.
"I've been here more than 20 years, and we've never had more than four football guys get scholarships in the same season," Oceanside coach John Carroll said. "We had 20 senior football players on the varsity and six got Division I scholarships. It shows how special these kids are as football players and students."
The Cougars had four athletes ---- Seale, Zier, basketball player Joe Hudson (Wyoming) and softball player Mala Lemay (Hawaii) ---- earn scholarship offers.
"No one can remember a time when Escondido had scholarship athletes in all three of the major boys sports," Escondido athletic director Steve Bridges said. "So this is an historic day."
Vista had five athletes earn scholarships ---- Jordan Alexander (baseball, UC Irvine), Victoria Jones (softball, California), Madison Walters (softball, Fort Lewis College), Alex Jimenez (girls soccer, San Jose State) and Troy Ware (football, Boise State).
La Costa Canyon had 23 athletes earn scholarships, including Kenny Stills (football, Oklahoma), Justin DiRe (football, Wyoming), Nichole Downing (girls soccer, Portland), Marissa Daniels (girls soccer, USD), Natalie Hagglund (girls volleyball, USC), Dennis Kramer (boys basketball, USD), Max MacNabb (baseball, USD), Michael and Will Swanner (baseball, Pepperdine), Kendall Partie (boys volleyball, UCLA) and Amelia Herring (girls tennis, Stanford).
Contact staff writer John Maffei at 760-740-3547.
