Davonte Allen stood on the sidelines with his teammates in Orlando, celebrated the sixth state title in Glades Day history. In an overtime thriller, the Gators took down Warner Christian 27-20 to cap off a playoffs in which Allen pulled in eight receptions for 218 yards.

So what did the junior wide receiver do as an encore? He transferred to a new school.

Glades Day is in Class 1B, which in Florida high school football terms is fairly low on the totem pole. Allen oftentimes found himself feeling as though he was above his competition, so he packed his bag and moved all the way to Glades Central, a Class 2A school located just two miles down the road.

Glades Central was losing its top receiver, Greg Dent, to a scholarship at Florida State, and Allen felt he could fill the vacancy well.

“I wanted better competition to challenge myself,” Allen tells wvillustrated.com. “Glades Central runs a spread offense, and I really like the spread. I think Coach [Jessie] Hester can make me better as a receiver too.”

Coach Hester has prepared a number of players in previous years to perform at the next level, including WVU’s new freshman cornerback Travis Bell and Marshall signee Antwon Chisholm. Before Hester took the helm at Glades Central, some receiver named Alric Arnett starred in the Belle Glades, Fla. community before passing through Morgantown on his way to the Denver Broncos.

Allen knows there is a tradition of sorts with Florida athletes taking their game to West Virginia, and when he watched the WVU fans cheering on their team in the 2008 Meineke Car Care Bowl, he could see why.

“They probably like the same things I like. They like the feeling they get up there because it’s different than being in Florida. It’s a different environment,” says Allen. “It’s a warm feeling over there like it’s a big family.”

For Allen, it wasn’t just like a family, but rather his family in the literal sense. His cousin is Ja-Juan Seider, a former WVU quarterback and more recently a graduate assistant before taking his first collegiate coaching job at Marshall.
 

“I already knew him since I was younger and we were close already, so he already talked to me about that type of stuff at West Virginia,” says Allen.

Now, he looks to receivers coach Lonnie Galloway as his family in Morgantown. Allen says he has been speaking to his potential future coach ever since he first took the job at West Virginia, and the two have grown close in recent years. With the recruiting process really beginning to heat up, he finds that he can take comfort in the familiar voice on the phone when he calls that 304 area code in his cell phone.

“I’ve talked to him since I was younger because he was always around our family,” says Allen. “He’s been saying he thinks I’m a big-time player and he really wants me to go to West Virginia and stuff like that. He really likes how I play.”

As Allen said regarding his reason for transferring, he likes a spread offense. When he watches West Virginia’s wideouts, he sees where he could be in the fall of 2011. But it will not take him nearly that long to make his decision, as he hopes to take most of his visits this summer.

“I think I’m going to commit right before the football season starts,” says Allen. “I’m going to take a couple visits, and West Virginia will be one of them.”

Check back tomorrow as wvillustrated.com introduces you to a former teammate of Allen's, J.T. Thornton. The young cornerback also has family ties to WVU that could bode well for the Mountaineers.