Rayner narrows choice to either Duke or ECU

 North Brunswick High School football player Keilin Rayner will announce on signing day, Feb. 1, which college he will attend.

Michael Paul

North Brunswick High School football player has narrowed his college choice to either Duke or ECU, Garry Bishop said.

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“He has narrowed it down to Duke and ECU,” his high school coach, Garry Bishop, said Jan. 25.

“He took the ECU visit last week and the Duke visit this week. I though Carolina was in the running but he told me today he has narrowed it down to those two.”

Rayner is 6-foot-3 and one-half inches, 240 pounds, Bishop said, and can run the 40-yard dash in the “high 4.5s, low 4.6s.”

In his senior year at North, Rayner made a team-leading 65 solo tackles (out of the Scorpions’ 343 tackles) and finished with 164 total tackles (out of 987). He had two sacks. On offense, Rayner gained 100 yards on 23 attempts and scored twice.

Rayner also played on the victorious North Carolina team in the 75th annual Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas, played in Spartanburg, S.C.

Bishop said the colleges were recruiting him as an outside linebacker/defensive end.

“He’ll be great,” Bishop said about Rayner’s future at those positions.

“They know him,” Bishop said about the ECU and Duke coaches. “They have been down here three or four times each and he has been up there. They got a relationship now. They don’t ask me many questions (now). They asked a lot last year, you know, about his character and work ethic—and it’s one of the best I’ve had since I’ve been here.”

Bishop has retired from coaching football after 26 years at North.

“They know what he is all about,” Bishop said. “I don’t get any more questions anymore. They’re wanting him so bad they just come down a lot.”

No matter which college Rayner chooses, Bishop said, securing a college education is what matters. He said Rayner had mentioned studying kinesiology.

 “I feel great for him and his family,” Bishop said. “He has choices about where he wanted to go to college, and that’s always a great thing for a young man and family—to get a free education.”