College Football Recruiting: Akron East's Ibraheem Kamara commits to Toledo
East senior football player Ibraheem Kamara is not quite sure what position he will play in college.
The good thing is he has a college where he wants to figure that out.
Kamara, who is 6-foot-3 and 170 pounds, said he has committed to Toledo.
"The coaches made me feel comfortable," Kamara said. "Toledo is a great fit."
Kamara has 12 college scholarship offers. He said Toledo, Kent State, Bowling Green, Miami of Ohio, Pittsburgh, Liberty and Central Michigan were his finalists.
Kamara, who has a 3.0 GPA. said he is interested in majoring in finance at Toledo. He plays strong safety and wide receiver at East.
"The Kamaras have been a family that have come through East, with his older brother Bangally Kamara at the University of Pittsburgh and his older brother Sekou Kamara at Shepherd University and now you are talking about Ibraheem being the third Kamara on this list," East coach Marques Hayes said.
Kamara had 83 tackles, six sacks and one interception last season as East's football team made a Division III playoff appearance and finished with a 6-5 overall record and a 4-1 mark in the City Series.
"Seeing him grow from freshman year to junior year when he started to get these scholarship offers, he is a very versatile athlete," Hayes said. "I think Toledo got a great one with him. He had multiple choices to choose from, but he went up there and I remember going to watch one of our former players, Eric Holley, practice and play in the Toledo Spring Game.
"I said to him: 'Go check out the linebackers coach Vince Kehres and see if you like the way he coaches and look at the drills that he is doing.' He was like 'Man, this is an intense practice.' Holley had a great day, too. ... Coaches took us up to the offices after practice was over. It was myself, it was Ibraheem, it was our defensive tackle Keith Kendrick and it was our running back Ziaire Stevens.
"We are sitting in there with the head coach and you could tell they really wanted Ibraheem bad. He looks at me and he says: 'Coach, I think I am going to commit to this school.' I said: 'Go ahead and do it.' He says to me: 'How do I say it?' So he says: 'Coach, I want to come here.' The head coach Jason Candle slapped the table and he says: 'Guys, we got him.' Everybody is yelling and screaming. It was crazy."
Hayes added that the euphoria continued as Stevens pulled out his cellular phone to celebrate Kamara's fun moment.
"The love that they showed him up there was fantastic," Hayes said. "You can tell it was a great fit. He got a chance to sit in with coach Kehres in his office for around an hour, just talking about family and everything. Plus, Toledo has been in the top of the MAC since I played [at the University of Akron]."
Michael Beaven can be reached at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ibraheem Kamara of Akron East commits to Toledo football
