Three-star Hanahan (South Carolina) defensive end recruit Cooper Dawson committed to Syracuse on Wednesday’s Early Signing Day. Dawson picked a Syracuse hat over two others on a table in front of him: UCF and Clemson. But his hat ceremony was a little more intricate than that.
Recruit has one of the sweetest Signing Day ceremonies you’ll see
Syracuse signee Cooper Dawson didn’t just have any old hat ceremony.
More below, but this video tells the story better than I will:
Dawson is friends with Kingsley Feinman. It seems like the two have been tight for a while, certainly at least back to last summer, when they took this picture together:
Dawson tore an ACL at a Clemson camp that same summer and didn’t get to play his senior season. But he still racked up some scholarship offers and had a ceremony Wednesday. Feinman sat at the table with him, and Dawson whispered his college choice to him. Feinman then announced it to the room and the cameras, and both put on Cuse hats: “He’s going to Syracuse,” he said, before a bunch of clapping kicked in.
A transcript of what Dawson said right before that:
They told me just to wait and my time would come. They really helped me. I brought Kingsley out here today, because he’s inspired me a lot through the torn ACL process. He taught me that the only disability is a bad attitude. And if he can come around every day with this big ol’ smile on, I can do it just the same.
