Three-star ATH Burke eager to enroll early in Charlottesville
Ask three-star ATH Javin Burke about UVa and you might want to get comfortable. The future Wahoo, as with most all commits, has plenty to say about the school he chose. But the Tennessee native has a deeper level of not only interest but appreciation for what Bronco Mendenhall and Co. are building in Charlottesville.
“Man,” he said with a laugh recently, when asked about starting to hear from them. “That’s tough, because they were on me for so long. I think it was at the beginning of football season, I want to say. August, maybe, and then I went on the visit on November 8th. It was the day after we lost in the first round of the playoffs. I left straight from the game for UVa and I still didn’t have the offer. I didn’t get the offer until like February. So I got to come up and see them play Georgia Tech.”
That offer, of course, came. And the feeling was one he won’t forget.
“It was real good,” he told CavsCorner, “because they were the first school to start recruiting me. That was my first visit ever and all that stuff.
“At first they were recruiting me as a quarterback,” Burke recalled. “Then Coach (Nick) Howell started texting me and stuff and it was still quarterback. And then they were like ‘We’re going to change your offer and move it to DB’ and I was thinking I was still cool with it because I’ll play whatever, I don’t really care. It’s college football, man. You gotta do whatever it takes.”
It ultimately came down to UVa and Vanderbilt, a decision that essentially made itself over time.
“They’ve just built up such a great relationship with me and my family,” he said of UVa. “Vanderbilt didn’t call, didn’t want to talk to my parents not one time. They didn’t call me and tell me about school, none of that stuff.”
The investment that Howell and Virginia made in him was evident.
“He’s such a good dude,” Burke said with a laugh. “I like him a lot. He’s funny. And I’ll tell you this, he’ll get straight to it. He’s going to tell you straightforward what’s what and you better be ready because he’s going to tell you a plan and he wants you do it. Simple as that.”
How was it that the 6-foot, 200 pounder came to know it was time to commit last month?
“So, we were on Zoom and this was when I had like this whole day with Virginia,” he recalled. “I had been thinking a lot about committing, though. I had been wanting to commit for a while. I had been saying November and then I moved it to July. Then I started talking to Virginia a whole bunch. The day before I committed, I had practice at 11 and then I had a [virtual] tour at 3 of downtown and the campus and all that stuff, and then I had a workout with Jaylon Baker at like 5:30 or 6 and then I had a phone call with one of the academic guys and then Coach Howell and Coach Bronco, and then all three because then my parents too because they wanted to talk about academics.
“It was a busy, busy day,” he said with a laugh.
During that Zoom tour, it was very apparent that the staff was hopeful to land a commitment from the Cleveland (TN) Bradley Central standout.
“I could tell he wanted me because he was driving and everything,” Burke said of Howell. “He was driving, get out of the car, get back in the car, showing me the locker rooms and practice fields and downtown, all that stuff.
“After we got off the call, me and my family talked about it for like 10 minutes, maybe 15, so I called them about 30 minutes later and told them,” he added. “They had told me that they would accept my commitment whenever I was ready but Coach Bronco had me read out the offer letter and then he explained what it was and what it all meant. Then after that they were convinced and I was convinced.”
How would he describe the feeling?
“It was all so so stressful, man,” he said. “This felt so good. It’s made me feel so much better. Knowing where I’m going to go, it’s what I needed for real.”
Since his commitment, Burke has gotten closer to the other 2021 commits, including his future roommate. But that’s a friendship that’s been in the works a while.
“We’ve been talking and stuff and it’s a real cool group,” he said. “I was actually talking to Aidan (Ryan) before I even committed. And the more we’ve talked, we’ve decided that maybe we could room together when we get there and I think they’re going to let us do that. I’m an early grad, though, so when school starts back up after that he’ll be there with me.”
Speaking of plans, Burke has been looking to enroll early since well before his UVa commitment and that seems to still be his path.
“Yeah, that’s always been my plan,” he said. “I decided that a long time ago. I stopped doing track and I stopped doing basketball my sophomore year just to start taking more classes.”
All told, coming the end of the recruiting process has been a big positive.
“It’s been real nice and it’s been real quiet,” Burke said. “I talk to Coach Howell, like when he was on his way to see family in Utah, but I don’t have to talk to anybody or do anything. I can just do what I do and not worry about a thing.”
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