One of the commitments the Notre Dame football team signed in recent months was that of punter Ben Turk. Ben is a high school student playing football for St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. When he received a scholarship to continue his post-secondary education at the University of Notre Dame, he didn take long to make up his mind. He accepted the scholarship without even making a visit to see what awaits him on campus. He is 6 feet tall and weighs 190 pounds. The signing of Turk for the 2009 class was the eighth commitment for Notre Dame as it continues its recruiting efforts for future years.
Turk is considered to have the strongest legs of any high school football player in the country with an average of 40.8 yards in one punt. He comes from a football family with his uncle, Matt Turk, being a punter for Houston Texas for 13 seasons in a row. Another of his uncles, Dan Turk, was an NFL player from 1985 to 1999. When asked about making his decision to play for Notre Dame so quickly, Turk told reporters that there really wasn much of a decision to make. He long held the team and the university in high regard and was pleased at having been offered a scholarship from the university.
St. Thomas Aquinas School is also the alma mater of players such as Sam Young and Dan Wenger. It has a reputation for a strong football team and with the commitment from Turk, Notre Dame now has a pipeline with the school for obtaining future prospects. Turk has not had enough exposure to have a ranking from Rivals, Scout and ESPN, but Chris Sailer ranks the punter as the sixth in the nation among junior college football players. No doubt the other ratings will be just as high.
Although Ben was not promised any early playing time, he is practicing with the team in South Bend and he hopes that through his efforts he will be able to show off his punting skills to gain him some playing time next season. Since the current punter plans for next season are still up in the air, it is quite likely that Turk will see some time on the field in his freshman year.
In addition to being an excellent football player, Ben is also an outstanding student. His grade point average stands at 4.32 showing that he has what it takes to do well at Notre Dame in all aspects of university life. His teachers have described him as being an ll-around student??one who knows what he wants and is willing to work hard to achieve his goals.
Turk said that Notre Dame is a great university and that he is proud that he is going to be part of it. Having made the commitment to Notre Dame makes it easier for him in his final year of high school because he won have to spend his time waiting and wondering if a college team will pick him up. He can concentrate on perfecting his game even more and attending to his studies.
