Jordan Zumwalt speaks about recruiting stress

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After not answering phone calls for the last couple of days while trying to take a breather from recruiting questions, linebacker Jordan Zumwalt from Huntington Beach Edison was more than comfortable discussing Monday his decision to sign last week with UCLA despite being a long-time Stanford commit.

‘I feel absolutely 100% very confident with my decision,’ he said. ‘There are critics who say I made a big mistake, but I don’t care.’

What Zumwalt did learn about recruiting is that the stress over his decision didn’t have to be.

‘You have to learn not to make it such a big deal,’ he said.

Of course, the reason it became such a big deal was that Zumwalt developed into the best middle linebacker prospect in Southern California with performances week after week that caused UCLA and USC to start recruiting him all-out even though he had been committed to Stanford. He had not attended very many summer combines, which led to him being underrated before the season.

‘It all came together,’ he said.

He got to finally relax this past week by competing for Edison’s wrestling team and qualified for the Southern Section championships in the 215-pound division.

-- Eric Sondheimer

File photo: Huntington Beach Edison High football players, from left, Jordan Zumwalt, Luke Gane and Roman Sapolu pose with the bell they won last year by defeating rival high school Fountain Valley. Credit: Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times