Roosevelt's Petty Picks Terps

’s Shawn Petty had a feeling that a scholarship offer from the University of Maryland would come soon, and when it did he wasted little time seizing it.

The Raiders’ rising senior quarterback/linebacker verbally committed to the Terrapins over the weekend, a week after Maryland extended an offer at a one-day camp in College Park.

“I didn’t want to wait too long and have them think that I wasn’t interested,” Petty said Wednesday. “I mean, I waited like, a week, and nobody else was making contact, so I went ahead and committed.”

The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Petty led the Raiders to a 9-3 record last season, which ended with a to eventual state runner-up Wise.

Petty missed four games last fall after breaking his collarbone while playing quarterback in a . But he returned to play just offense in the final regular-season game and the playoffs. He’ll play linebacker in college.

Although he’ll be counted on to play an ever bigger role at QB this fall as Roosevelt looks to overcome massive graduation losses at the skill positions, Petty will still see plenty of time on the defensive side of the ball, Roosevelt coach Tom Green said.

“He’s going to play a lot of outside linebacker,” Green said. “I know [the Terrapins] like him in the middle. But I’m not going to play him a lot in middle, because I’m not going to put him in position to take all those shots ’cause he’s still our starting quarterback.”

Green said he knew Petty - who was also a forward on the Raiders' - liked Maryland and wasn’t surprised that his star player committed without waiting on scholarship offers from other schools.

“[Maryland] had offered quite a few other kids and had some commitments,” Green said. “So Shawn, he didn’t want to wait and they have all their offers out or they have all their commitments, ’cause I know he really liked Maryland. So, I think that was part of it. And at that point – at those camps – they had offered another 10 or 15 guys. So I don’t think he wanted to take the chance [of waiting].”

Green said he the thought the University of Pittsburgh was close to offering a scholarship, as were as several Division I-AA schools.

Petty, though, knew he wanted to make the decision now.

“I mean, I really didn’t have nobody else looking at me,” he said, “so I just took what I got. I was able to keep it, ’cause I didn’t want it to get pulled or something like that.”

A Florida native, Petty said he grew up a University of Miami fan. But added the Terrapins have grown on him since moving to Maryland prior to sixth grade.

“I’ve been here for, like, six years now,” he said, “so I mean, I really like the Terrapins. I’ve been to a lot of games and things like that.”