Mike Gesicki was about to head home from Southern Regional High School (Manahawkin, N.J.) last Tuesday when his coach told him if he hung around, he’d get a chance to meet Notre Dame assistant Bob Diaco, so he did.
“I didn’t really talk to him because of the NCAA rules,” the 2014 wide receiver/tight end prospect said. “He just came by, got a quick eyeball of me. I shook his hand and he gave my coach a piece of paper. He invited me to their Junior Day on March 23rd and I’m going to go up there and see what it’s all about.”
Even though Diaco couldn’t have extensive conversations with Gesicki, he was able to deliver a clear message through the Southern Regional coach.
“He said he wasn’t just coming down to see me, he said they’re very interested in me,” Gesicki said. “They’ve seen my film, they’re impressed with my film and they definitely want to get me up on campus just so I can see campus and see what their team does.
“There was definitely an emphasis of getting me up there to see everything, so I’m definitely going to go up there.”
The 6-foot-6, 222-pound Gesicki has early offers from Boston College and Rutgers among others and is already excited about his upcoming trip to South Bend.
“I’ve heard that their campus is beautiful and it’s a great place to be,” he said. “I’m definitely interested to walk around campus and see their facilities and compare them to other places I’ve been like Stanford, Rutgers and Boston College and places like that.
“I just want to meet their coaches, see how interested they are in me and where I would fit on their team and in their offense. It’s definitely going to be a pretty cool experience.”
Gesicki is also receiving interest from schools like Penn State, Maryland and Temple. He’ll be headed to Wisconsin for an unofficial visit on Feb. 20th.
“It’s definitely cool,” Gesicki said of the early offers and interest. “It’s a great accomplishment and shows the hard work. It shows that some schools are really interested in me and it should really just start to heat right now in the winter of my junior year and in the spring, it’ll really start to heat up.
“I’m going to send my full season highlight film out and hopefully that’ll get some more looks. I’m really looking forward to the future and seeing what other schools become interested.”
He was honored to have Notre Dame come by his school to check on him as well.
“That’s a huge accomplishment, not only for myself, but for the Southern football team and Southern football family,” he said. “Notre Dame just got out of playing for the national championship after having a phenomenal season. Stopping by Southern Regional is pretty cool, it’s a great accomplishment. I’m blessed for that to happen to me.
“I was not expecting it. For that to happen, was a pretty cool experience.”
Gesicki’s father is an airline pilot, which makes traveling much easier.
“I’m definitely taking advantage of all of these schools and their invitations to junior days and camps,” he said. “I’m definitely going to take as many unofficial visits as I possibly can just to get my name out there, meet as many different coaches, see different places and schools. You only go through recruiting once and I definitely want to take full advantage of it.”
Gesicki ran a 4.7 40-yard dash at Penn State’s camp last year, but believes he’s faster now and expects to continue getting faster. He could end up at receiver or tight end in college or a mixture of the two.
“Some schools like Rutgers are looking at me as a wide receiver,” he said. “Other schools like Penn State are looking at me as their backfield tight end/wide receiver/slot. Boston College is the same thing. Wisconsin uses their tight end a lot. Different schools are looking at me for different things, but mainly just going in there and helping out the offense by catching passes and creating mismatches with defenders.
“I can do different things just because of my athleticism at 6-6, 222 pounds, but still being able to move and run.”
Gesicki is also being recruited as a basketball player and while at least one school has offered him the chance to play both sports at the next level, he’s planning on just picking one and right now is leaning toward football. He is going to be looking at several factors when it comes to making a decision.
“The first thing I’ve got to look at is academics in case football doesn’t work out for me in the long, long run,” he said. “I definitely have to look at academics to make a backup plan. After that, how I fit in with the coaches’ offenses. How I like the school, how I like the campus. Can I live life there for the next four or five years? There are a few big decisions that go into, but those are the main ones.”
Gesicki could narrow his list down at some point during the summer, but isn’t going to rush a decision.
“I’m definitely going to keep my options open because you only go through this one time.”
