Five-star cornerback Kelee Ringo does a lot of winning. Going into his senior year at Saguaro High School, Ringo is a member of a talented Sabercats team. They had around 20 players with Division I offers heading into the 2018 season and are searching for their seventh straight 4A state title in 2019.
Ringo has been a part of three of those championship teams and has seen his 247Sports rating rise to No. 10 overall in the Class of 2020, No. 2 in the country’s cornerback pool and No. 1 out of Arizona.
He added to that winning last weekend in Las Vegas by winning the Pylon 7v7 championship with several other Ohio State targets, some of the top talent in the 2020 class.
“There was a lot of great competition everywhere,” Ringo said. “It was nice to be able to work on my footwork and just be patient in the game. There were a lot of dudes out there and a lot of great competition overall.”
Second INT of the game for Kelee Ringo (@KeleeRingo) #Pylon7on7 pic.twitter.com/c4xQGP6nzf
— "EJ Holland" (@EJHolland247) February 25, 2019
Ringo played alongside five-star California wideout Johnny Wilson, five-star Washington linebacker Sav’ell Smalls and four-star Washington running back Sam Adams. Ohio State four-star wide receiver commit Gee Scott, Jr. was also on Ringo’s team. Those are the No. 10 (Ringo), No. 22 (Wilson), No. 6 (Smalls), No. 213 (Adams) and No. 76 (Scott) players in the class on the same 7v7 team.
Their team, the Ford Sports Performance Blue Chip, cruised undefeated through the tournament, which also included No. 1 tight end Darnell Washington, four-star Missouri wideout Jordan Johnson and 2021 athlete Emeka Egbuka — all Ohio State targets as well.
When some of the top recruits in the nation play together, talks of football programs and futures within the sport are usually at hand too, Ringo said.
“Most definitely. All the time,” Ringo said about discussing schools with recruits. “We want to know where each other is going. I don’t know where I’m going yet. We always talk to each other about where we want to go and where we feel comfortable at. A lot of us aren’t really sure. Me and Johnny talked about it a little bit too. Of course, Gee is always trying to recruit me to go (to Ohio State).”
There goes 2020 five-star CB Kelee Ringo (@KeleeRingo) #Pylon7on7 pic.twitter.com/2UBHR4Pzkf
— Ashton Washington (@TOCAshton247) February 25, 2019
Ringo said he’s in “constant” contact with Ohio State secondary coach Jeff Hafley and wide receivers coach Brian Hartline. He also said former head coach Urban Meyer’s departure hasn’t swayed his perception of the program since he and new head coach Ryan Day are always talking too.
Ringo said location isn’t an issue for him, so moving from Scottsdale, Arizona, to a school on the other side of the country isn’t out of the question. He’s strongly looking at SEC schools — like Georgia — in addition to Ohio State, Washington, Texas and other schools. He plans to visit Ohio State again in the future.
Ultimately, he said, it’ll come down to the relationships he makes with coaches. Until it’s decision time, though, he just hopes to compete with and develop relationships with other top prospects in his class.
“It’s going to be really crazy to look back on these years and feel like it was just yesterday that we were at Pylon Las Vegas, celebrating a win, when we’re in college after just playing in a bowl game or something like that,” Ringo said. “These relationships are great, and they’re going to be huge to remember.”
