Yahoo Finance Florida high school teams with Miami to hold signing ceremony for family of recruit who died in a July car crash
Colby Singletary is an honorary member of Miami’s 2020 recruiting class.
Singletary, 18, was killed in a car crash in July in Golden Gate Estates, Florida. While he had been recruited with scholarship offers from multiple schools outside Power Five conferences, his dream had always been to go to Miami. And on Wednesday, his father and sister got to sign preferred walk-on papers for him with the Hurricanes.
According to the Naples Daily News, the idea was hatched by Palmetto Ridge High School defensive coordinator P.J. Gibbs, who worked with Miami linebackers coach Jonathan Patke to get the paperwork for Singletary’s family.
The family was then surprised with the idea on Tuesday, a day before the ceremony.
"He and I were huge Miami fans, we watched the games every Saturday and went to quite a few of them as well," Colby’s father Casey told the Naples Daily News. "It didn't look like it would be possible. They started looking at him his junior year but I don't know if they were going to offer him a scholarship. I told him maybe we should look at some other schools and he wasn't having it. He told me, 'I'll walk on if I have to and I'm going to start there one day.'"
Singletary died July 6
Singletary was a two-time state champion wrestler in addition to being a Division I recruit at linebacker. He was driving on July 6 when his car went over a median and struck a tree. He was not wearing a seatbelt. The teenage woman in the passenger seat who was wearing her seatbelt suffered serious injuries.
The Palmetto Ridge team honored him throughout the entirety of the 2019 season and carried his jersey out onto the field before every game. Palmetto Ridge coach Chris Toukonen said that Colby was the team’s best all-around player.
Wednesday was the first day of the early signing period for recruits in the class of 2020. Colby’s family was part of a class of 19 who signed papers to commit with the Hurricanes, who currently have the No. 2 class in the ACC and the No. 16 recruiting class overall.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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