Published: November 27, 2007 07:15 am      

Gator made

Hines verbally commits to Florida

When his "dream school," came calling, Omarius Hines couldn’t resist.

The Tigers wide receiver verbally committed to the University of Florida during a recruiting visit in Gainesville, Fla. over the weekend.

"I was always going to commit or whatever, but I had to go up there and see it for myself," Hines said.

Hines had more than 20 offers and made trips to Oklahoma and Texas Tech before deciding on the Gators.

But to his family, Hines’ decision was an easy one.

When Hines was eight years old, playing his first year of Pee Wee football, his mother —Lisa — asked a playful question of her son.

"I asked him what school he wanted to go to school and he said, ‘I’ll be a Florida Gator,’" And I said, ‘Huh?’ Because it kind of surprised me, because I had never heard of the Florida Gators," she said.

Neither Lisa nor Omarius can figure why he liked Florida. Lisa said her son didn’t watch much football on television and still doesn’t. Hines’ father, Marcus, isn’t a Gators fan either.

"I don’t even remember, my momma just told me," said Hines of his early Florida fixation. "I didn’t even remember saying that, but I guess I did."

When the scholarship offer finally came midseason, Hines scheduled a visit for the Florida-Florida State game Saturday.

"He said all along he wanted to find a good place to go to school and a place where he could win a national championship and I think the University of Florida certainly fits both those bills," Tigers coach Dave Henigan said.

Hines is the 164th-ranked player in the nation according to Rivals.com, a recruiting Web site.

"Certainly it’s an honor for our program, any time kids move on," Henigan said. "Sure, you like to turn on the TV on Saturdays and see kids that you coached playing."

Recruits can’t officially sign with schools until Feb. 6, 2008.

He’s the second player to commit to Florida at a high school Henigan has coached.

As an offensive coordinator at Denton Ryan, defensive standout Jarvis Moss signed with the Gators.

"I don’t have anything to do with it," Henigan said. "A lot of people have a misconception that high school coaches have a lot to do with recruiting — and certainly we can have a little bit to do with it — but when it comes right down to it, those guys get paid a lot of money to find players and recruit players."

Hines was heavily recruited by colleges across the country including Kansas, Michigan and West Virginia.

In 2006, Hines’ breakout season, he had 62 catches for more than 1,200 yards and a school-record 23 touchdowns.

It was a meteoric rise for Hines, who came close to quitting football his sophomore year to focus on basketball.

"Basketball was his favorite sport, that’s where his heart was, that’s where he excelled," Lisa said. "He liked football, he liked basketball better."

But Hines talked to his father and some of the coaches and made the decision to keep playing both.

Hines tweaked his knee playing basketball this season, and though he was fine, he told his mother the incident scared him. He stopped playing basketball for the Tigers after it.

But the slight disappointment of quitting basketball is replaced by excitement for Hines and his family.

"It’s someplace he wanted to go to and he got what he wanted — so I’m glad for him," Lisa said.