St. John Bosco Reunion on Tap for Woodbey and Uiagalelei
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)Staff Writer
When Boston College safety Jaiden Woodbey was a senior at St. John Bosco in Bellflower, California—a high school powerhouse that has produced three California state championships in the last decade—Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei was the Braves’ starting signal caller.
That year, Uiagalelei completed 68.1% of his passes for 2,905 yards and 31 touchdowns, while running for four more scores and 379 yards.
Woodbey went off to Florida State, where he played for three years before transferring to BC, and Uiagalelei continued his illustrious career at Bosco.
But the former high school teammates will be meeting again this weekend in Death Valley.
“It’s crazy just to think about it,” Woodbey said Tuesday. “We were supposed to play against each other last year, but COVID and everything happened at my old school. But it’ll be exciting. A little Bosco reunion.”
Uiagalelei rounded out his Bosco days with 10,496 passing yards and 127 touchdowns through the air, averaging a whopping 18 yards per completion. He also piled up 1,103 yards and 18 scores on the ground. He was ranked as the No. 3 overall Class of 2020 player in the nation and the top quarterback prospect, according to Rivals.
Even though Uiagalelei has stumbled out to a slow start this fall after a prolific two-game stretch last season—including a three-touchdown comeback performance against BC—Woodbey knows the 6-foot-4, 250 gunslinger is a dangerous playmaker.
“We just have to be ready because he’s a great quarterback,” Woodbey said. “And we’ve faced great quarterbacks before, and I feel like we have great quarterbacks at our practice that give us great looks. So I feel like they’re doing a great job of helping us get ready for a dual-threat quarterback like DJ.”
Woodbey looks back fondly at his time at Bosco. He recalled that “every game was pretty much sold out” and mentioned how, when the Braves played Centennial High School (Corona, California), extra bleachers were brought onto the field to accommodate a crowd of more than 10,000 people.
“I just remember like, man, this is high school football, and we have this many people watching,” Woodbey said. “So I feel like the big stage never really got to me because I felt like at St. John Bosco, they prepared me the right way.”
Woodbey will be on the big stage yet again Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.
And so will his old quarterback, who is under immense pressure to get his mojo back.
