Preston Carey, one of the most dominant high school football players ever to come out of Long Island, sat behind a table at Oheka Castle Sunday night, four hats in front of him, ready to make a decision that had been four years in the making.
“Feels really good,” Carey told Varsity Media after choosing the University of Georgia. “There’s a lot of work to be done though, and I’m just excited to get back in the gym and go back to work, because that’s the only reason I am where I am today.”
The defensive lineman chose Georgia over 3 others: Florida, Auburn and Rutgers. The room was buzzing in support of Carey.
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Trey Scott, Georgia’s defensive line coach, had been with Carey from the start.
“Not only has he been recruiting me since I was in eighth grade,” Carey said, “but he’s always shown love. He came all the way up from Georgia ’cause I couldn’t make it down there financially.”
Along with Fran Brown, now Syracuse’s head coach, Scott saw Carey at a camp at Temple University when he was still in middle school.
“They offered me then and they believed in me since day one,” Carey said. “They just told me consistently what I need to do better and what I do good enough to be an elite defensive lineman at the college level.”
Carey grew up on Long Island and started his football career at St. Anthony’s High School in South Huntington before transferring to IMG Academy in Florida. For Carey, committing in the same place his football journey began wasn’t forgotten.
“If you want to be elite, you got to go against elite competition,” he said. “I just feel like it’s the same thing at Georgia.”
Rutgers was the other top contender — and two of Carey’s former teammates, KJ Duff and Ian Strong, now play there. That made it tempting.
“They showed a lot of love,” Carey said. “It really could’ve been home.”
Carey expressed his appreciation to the people who trained and mentored him since he was a kid, singling out Golden Ukonu, co-founder of Peak Training Systems in Deer Park, along with Ben Brokaw and Justin Cole.
“They tell you what to do and they craft it for you so that you can get the right result,” Carey said. “Golden stayed with me at the gym until 10:30 some nights. He’s done so much for me.”
“I always look for a challenge,” he said. “Even coming into St. Anthony’s, the best team in the state the year before, and earning a starting job as a freshman. Then I leveled up, went to IMG. And now, trying to make a name for myself and keep a name for myself.”
“The next good thing to do to get better was go to the University of Georgia,” Carey said, looking forward.
Carey plans to enroll early and join the Bulldogs this December.
