CdM players (from left) Mark Redman, Ethan Garbers and John Humphreys are joined by teammates during the signing day. (Photos Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)
It was the day that a trio of talented and highly-heralded Corona del Mar football players Ethan Garbers, John Humphreys and Mark Redman had been looking forward to for a while.
To see the slide show, please click on the first photo
Wednesday afternoon the three made it official, signing national letters of intent. Garbers, a quarterback and Redman, a tight end signed with Washington and Humphreys, a wide receiver, signed with Stanford.
Family, friends, teammates were there to share in their big day at CdM. The players posed for pictures with fellow seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen, coaches and family members.
“It’s great, I’m extremely blessed to be in this position and to do it with all my teammates and best friends, it’s great, it feels amazing,” said Garbers. “I love it, it’s going to be a great spot up there and I can’t wait.
“I’m going to go in there with the mindset of trying to be the starter the first year. That’s how I’m going to think and hopefully that’s what’s going to happen.”
Garbers will be lined up against Humphreys when Washington and Stanford play.
“It’s going to be fun,” he said. “I can’t wait to play against him and play with Mark (Redman) too, it’s going to be a blast.”
If all goes as planned, Ethan Garbers will be competing against his brother Chase, the quarterback at California.
“He’s excited, I’m excited to finally beat him,” Garbers said. “I know we’ve lost to Cal the last two years so I’m excited to get up there and beat him next year.”
Humphreys was excited about the big day.
“It’s good to finally make this official,” Humphreys said. “It’s been a long time coming; I’ve been commited for a while so it’s kind of good to put it out of the way and know that it’s set it in stone and get ready to go up there and get to work.”
Humphreys’ family has a link to Stanford. His father played football and his mother played volleyball there.
“It’s been a dream school of mine ever since I was little growing up going to games,” he said. “This is surreal for me today to seal the deal and turn my dreams into reality.”
Humphreys said he was appreciative of the support he has received along the way.
“All the love from the community and my teammates and all the support these guys have shown and I’ve shown to them too, it’s amazing,” he said. “There is a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication, long days, long nights putting in work have led to this and also just trusting the process with CdM coming here and trusting these coaches and trusting them that they were going to make me the best player I could be and put me in position to sign today.”
Humphreys said he is not sure what role he will play as a freshman.
“I’m not sure, honestly,” he said. “I’m just excited to get up there and get to work. I’m going to have to earn everything. That’s the main thing, get up there and work as hard as I can and just try to learn as much as I can pretty quickly. Whatever the team needs me to do, hopefully I can contribute and help them win early.”
Redman has known since April that he wanted to play in Washington and the decision by Chris Petersen to step down as head coach didn’t change his mind.
“It’s their culture, Coach P for the past eight years has developed that culture and Coach (Jimmy) Lake (the new coach) is going to take that culture and it’s something I look forward to being a part of,” said Redman. “It’s just a great school academically too. I look forward to all aspects of it.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s one of those schools I would go to even if I wasn’t playing football. I’m happy it’s officially done and I can get over there in March.”
Redman said he’s looking forward to continuing to be on the same team as Garbers.
“Since eighth grade I’ve been playing with Ethan and it’s only going to continue,” Redman said. “The relationship is only going to get better and the chemistry. I can’t wait for the next four.”
RELATED: CdM Coach Dan O’Shea reacts to players’ signings
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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