Junior Day Report: Dalyn Wade-Perry
MORE: Detailed recruiting and player notes from Junior Day and The Opening Oakland
A little more than a year after he received a scholarship offer from Stanford, 2017 New Jersey defensive lineman Dalyn Wade-Perry took his first trip to The Farm for the Cardinal's Junior Day. Wade-Perry was accompanied by his mother on the visit.
"It was an interesting trip," Wade-Perry said. "I was excited - it was my first time on the West Coast. So it was definitely a different atmosphere out there - not even just the school, but the people out there are so different. It was fun to get to see something new."
Specifically, Wade-Perry was struck by the personality of the people he came across while at Stanford and in the Bay Area.
"The people are a lot nicer, believe it or not," Wade-Perry said. "That's good to know, that if I do go out there I'd be surrounded by a lot of good people. They're just happy."
The trip was highlighted by a virtual reality presentation and campus tour.
"We got to do the virtual reality experience, which was pretty cool to (get a feel for what it's like) at a practice," Wade-Perry said. "Also taking a tour of the campus, which is always great, especially the church. The church is beautiful."
Peter Hansen has been Wade-Perry's area recruiter for the duration of his recruitment, but the Cardinal did have a change at defensive line coach when Randy Hart retired a few months back. Wade-Perry had relatively limited contact with new Cardinal defensive line assistant Diron Reynolds for the first months of Reynolds' tenure, but that changed in the weeks leading up to Wade-Perry's trip. Reynolds paid a visit to New Jersey to swing by Wade-Perry's high school, and the two had phone conversations.
Then, Wade-Perry and his mother were able to sit down with Reynolds on the visit.
"He told me about the whole process that they go through at the school that I knew about from Coach Hansen," Wade-Perry said. "(Reynolds also expressed) that they're excited about me and that they're going to continue recruiting me."
Stanford envisions Wade-Perry as a three-technique in its defensive front.
The three-star standout was hosted by freshman defensive lineman Wesley Annan on his visit.
"Basically (Annan) said to just make the right choice for me," Wade-Perry said. "He told me how when he was getting recruited he was talking to a lot of other coaches. They're like. 'Hey, what's holding you back (from committing to us)?' He got offered by Stanford pretty late I assume. And he was like, 'I'm waiting for a Stanford offer,' And the coaches were like, 'Well, look, if my kid got a Stanford offer I'd be sending him there.' So we basically compared some of our recruiting stories."
The visit also included a presentation about Stanford's admissions process. Wade-Perry was already familiar with the program's academic requirements heading into the weekend - Wade-Perry's high school coach and guidance counselor met with Peter Hansen to ensure he takes a courseload that will be viewed favorably by Stanford's admissions office.
"When Coach Hansen came by the school, he's been by there quite a few times now, he sat down with my coach and my guidance counselor," Wade-Perry said. "He actually helped them put together my schedule to make sure I have the right amount of AP and honors to get through admissions... My grades are looking sharp right now - I'm trying to keep them up and hopefully make sure I do well in these AP's and honors and I do well on my exams, SAT and ACT."
Wade-Perry took an SAT in May; he's still awaiting the results of that test. He's planning to take the ACT and to retake the SAT in June. He plans to start the application probably toward the end of this summer.
Overall, what was the biggest takeaway of Wade-Perry's first trip to The Farm?
"That the opportunities are endless there," he said.
"Academically, athletically obviously if you put the work in and the time you'll be able to make it to where you want to be athletically. But academically there is so much support and so many minds working together than you can get the job done and overall have a good future."
"(Stanford) definitely lived up to the hype. Everybody says how beautiful the campus and how good the academics are. I was very impressed with it living up what it said to be, so I'm excited to continue talking to them."
Next on Wade-Perry's recruiting calendar will be a June visit to Notre Dame. He also might take a trip to UCLA; he doesn't have any other visits currently planned.
"I'm going to start going down my list and seeing what schools I'm in touch with the most and possibly release a top five in July, if not sooner," Wade-Perry said.