In a game against Liberty High School Nov. 23, 2019, Samuel M’Pemba prepares to sack the quarterback during state quarterfinals. While this season’s schedule remains undetermined, M’Pemba is optimistic about what this year will bring for the team. “I hope this season goes great for the whole team, with no injuries,” M’Pemba said. “Hopefully I can continue to achieve the rest of my goals.” (Photo courtesy of Samuel M’Pemba)
M’PEMBA RANKS NATIONALLY Samuel M’Pemba gains several football recruitments as a sophomore MAX EASTMAN staff writer
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ophomore Samuel M’Pemba currently has numerous offers from colleges and universities across the country. He’s a four-star recruit and number two in Missouri football rankings — and it is only his second year on the varsity team. According to 247Sports.com, one of the frontrunners of high school sports coverage, M’Pemba is ranked 23rd in the nation for the class of 2023. M’Pemba’s position is weak-side defensive end, and he is currently ranked first nationally for this position in his graduating class. “He’s the most recruited this early in his career ... in terms of how many offers he has and him only being a sophomore,” varsity head football coach Mike Tarpey said. M’Pemba’s level of recruitment has increased drastically over the last three months, with 17 Division I football scholarship offers. While M’Pemba is a highly rated prospect, he is relatively new to the game of football. “I started playing football in seventh grade,” M’Pemba said. “It was weird, but I was still just trying to figure things out and learn all the rules and stuff.” After his freshman year, M’Pemba started to play seven-on-seven football, essentially a faster, more compact version of the sport. There, his high level of play raised interest among scouts. “[The team is] basically just the best players in St. Louis,” M’Pemba said. “It’s just seven people playing offense without a line, and seven playing defense without a line. We went all over the country
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and played the other top players. We played Florida teams, we played California teams [and] we played Texas teams. And when you do well against those teams, you get recognized.” M’Pemba quickly rose through the ranks of recruiting and received offers, his first coming from The University of Texas at Austin after playing in Houston during a tournament. While coaches seeing him play in person certainly helped, M’Pemba attributes a large portion of his success to the social media platform Twitter. “There’s a lot of college football coaches on Twitter. Once they see that you got an offer, they all start following you and start talking to you,” M’Pemba said. “Most of the time they [direct message] me and then I’ll get their number and after a couple of weeks talking, they eventually [make an] offer [to] me.” Twitter isn’t the only platform that’s accelerated M’Pemba’s rapid growth as a college scholarship prospect. The rankings done by 247Sports.com also played a major role in M’Pemba’s virality and wave of attention from colleges and universities. “The week after the rankings came out, I got nine offers in 10 days,” M’Pemba said. M’Pemba is hoping to continue improving and use his newfound popularity to get an offer from his dream school, the University of Alabama, widely acknowledged as one of the premier college football programs. Additionally, he has high aspirations of continuing the sport after college and ultimately playing in the National Football League. “I believe that everyone who has the opportunity to play [football] in college wants to go to the league,” M’Pemba said. “So of course I want to go to the league.” p 9.30.20
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