2-1-06 By: Brian Vaughn

Greenwood- With Greenwood's mayor Gary Campbell declaring February 1, 2006 as Daniel Stegall day, the All-State quarterback signed a national letter of intent to play for the University of Miami.

   The official letter was signed earlier in the morning, but at 11:30 the students of Greenwood high school were allowed to attend a big celebratory signing in Daniel's honor. Daniel was a little overwhelmed by just how many friends and supporters he had as the gym was filled in orange and green with Miami Hurricane apparel.

   Danielmania has hit Greenwood in Hurricane fashion. Stegall is the first division one football player to sign out of Greenwood in the school's football history dating back to 1921. It's safe to say that the University of Miami just gained over 8,000 new fans in the community of Greenwood.         

   Many who know Daniel expected him to be highly recruited and after his 2004 season it appeared things were beginning to go that direction, but a spring baseball injury in 2005 that kept him away from college camps and the Arkansas Quarterback Challenge along with being just over 50 miles to the south of the National Player of the Year Mitch Mustain seemed to make Daniel slip in the recruiting race.

   He was highly recruited by the military academies along with Louisiana Monroe and Arkansas State after guiding the Bulldogs to a State Championship in early December. The two sport all star at Greenwood would then turn his attention to where he would play ball at the next level and he wanted to continue to play both sports.

   With that in mind, he would commit to play for Arkansas State in early January and was excited and looking forward to the impact he would have in Jonesboro.

   As the recruiting season began to slip into signing day, fate would play a hand in Daniel's favor as the coach at Louisiana Monroe that had been recruiting him had been hired at Miami as the quarterbacks coach and the quarterback that Miami had offered was wavering on his commitment, so an offer was made to Daniel on Saturday, January 21 and he accepted on Sunday the 22 after decommiting with Arkansas State.

   Daniel and his parents took an official visit to Miami the weekend before signing day and were extremely impressed with everything they saw.

   Daniel is excited about the opportunity he's been giving at the University of Miami and thankful to the community in Greenwood for how they've supported him and his teammates at Greenwood and he hopes to do them all proud in Miami.

   For this writer it has been a great ride to be able to watch Daniel mature and grow as an athlete and person and I think him and his parents for all the access and information they've allowed me to have for the website here.

 

The following is a One on One interview with Daniel following his signing to Miami.

 

GreenwoodDogPound: Daniel, give us a run down on just how all this, you signing with Miami came about.

 

Daniel: Several weeks ago Coach Berry called me; he's the new quarterback coach at Miami. He said there might be a situation coming up because of the other quarterback that had already committed was taking a visit to Penn State. He told me to think about it and see and figure out what I would want to do if Miami happened to offered me a scholarship. He said it's just a situation right now. Then on Saturday, Coach Coker was gong through films of 15 or so quarterbacks to see who they were going to recruit just in case this other kid was going to decommit and go somewhere else. After they narrowed it down to three guys Coach Coker said, “who are these guys” and Coach Berry said that he knew one. So he didn't know who I was until after they had already decided they were going to recruit me.

 

GDP: Talk a little bit about that Sunday.

 

Daniel: It was hectic, I had probably 15 different newspapers and websites call from Miami. It almost got out to fast, but it was exciting and I was excited. I enjoyed the phone calls for the first couple of hours and then it was just sort of redundant, but it was fun. I enjoyed it.

GDP: Couple of questions that some Miami fans have been asking. How would you rate the level of competition that you have played against here in Arkansas?

 

Daniel: Well from my stand point, we were always the smaller team and we always played bigger and faster teams. Our style of play is more mental, doing the small things right and executing, but the good teams we played I thought the level of competition was very very good. With some of the other teams just like in any conference in any level you have some teams that are lesser then the rest of the teams in the conference.

 

GDP: Why do you think you weren't recruited earlier by more division one schools?

 

Daniel: I think some of it was just being from a AAAA school in Arkansas in a town of about seven thousand. Some of it might have been from Mitch Mustain getting all of his publicity, but at the same time he probably helped me a little bit with some of the recruiting that I got. He's sort of helped me at the same time, which is fine. I'm excited for him going to Arkansas, hopefully he can come out and help them get back to the winning streak they need to be on. Most of the major division one schools recruit from Texas, Florida and Georgia, so Arkansas isn't really a place they look at for athletes, because most for the athletes in Arkansas that have the grades go to Arkansas.

 

GDP: Has there been anything determined if you're going to be playing baseball at Miami also?

 

Daniel:  I'm pretty sure I will be able to; I think I might have to sit out the first year or so.  I've already talked to the baseball coach and he's excited.  I'm going to get to come out and practice, but they've only go one freshman pitcher and that's good, because all I want to do is pitch.  It'll make it easier for spring practice if I just pitch.

 

GDP:  How did your visit go last weekend in Miami?

 

Daniel:  Wonderful!  The weather was great. Miami, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, South Beach it was all as exciting as it was made out to be.

 

GDP:  What do you think about Danielmania here in Greenwood the last week?

 

Daniel:    It was exciting.  It was real fun, but sometimes I don't like to be singled out as much, but it was alright and I enjoyed it.  I'm thankful for everybody in this town and how they supported me.

 

GDP:  What are your thoughts on the Bulldog baseball season coming up?

 

Daniel:  I think we're going to win the state championship!

 

GDP:  Good Luck Daniel.  We're all very proud of you.  Keep in touch with us once you get to Miami, we're going to want updates.

 

Daniel:  Thank you and I will.