Conte Makes His Choice

After an impressive performance at Cal’s summer camp in mid-June Loyola (Los Angeles) defensive back Chris Conte committed to the University of California. Evidently Conte was impressed with what he saw at Cal as he gave Cal Head Coach Jeff Tedford the word that he was committing to the Bears.

Conte is a player that was somewhat under the radar in recruiting circles, but with his combination of size, strength and speed as well as his impressive showings at the Cal and UCLA camps, programs are obviously starting to notice the talented Conte.

Conte had 38 tackles and a pair of interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown for the Southern Section CIF Division 1 Champion Loyola squad. After a rough midseason stretch where the Cubs lost four of five games, they came on strong, winning their final five games, including a barnburner 49-42 victory over Esperanza in the CIF Championship game.

Last week, the Bear Insider had a chance to talk with the Conte family.

“Chris went up to Cal and really enjoyed things there and he’s very excited about it,” said Conte’s mom Ann last week. “He also went to UCLA to get some more practice in and to see what they had to say about him and I think he also enjoyed that camp and he’s delighted that they offered him, too. But he talked to Coach Tedford and that’s what his decision is (to go to Cal).”

After receiving the subsequent offer from childhood favorite and mom's alma mater UCLA right after his commitment to Cal, what was Conte’s thought process?

“I was really happy about being offered by UCLA, too and I was kind of a bit surprised,” said Conte. “I think I kind of just had to think about it (his commitment) a little bit. And then after thinking about it for a while, I decided that my decision to commit to Cal was still the best decision for me.”

“After Chris gave them a call after camp and they offered,” said Mrs. Conte today “he kind of wanted to jump right on it. I just advised him that he’d just only been at a camp and hadn’t really seen the school and had never really been to the Bay Area. Let’s just go back and see if you really like it.

“So the staff was really nice about everything and they showed us around and we saw the dorms and Chris really got a good tour of the campus. And we saw some of the coaches and players there and actually, we met (Cal commit) Brock (Mansion) and got to see the dorms with him and that played a big part in both of us feeling comfortable about the decision.

“I think Chris is in an incredibly fortunate situation having two schools like Cal and UCLA offer him scholarships,” Mrs. Conte this morning. “As far as Cal, it’s just an excellent school and an excellent opportunity. I had a cousin who went to Cal and my grandfather graduated from Cal and my aunt was married to somebody that taught architecture at Cal, so we’ve got a pretty good connection there.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to develop as a young man so I think it’s just really a positive situation all around.

“I’m committed to Cal and I’m still going by the decision,” said Conte. “I went up there to camp and they really liked me at Cal. Then I came back up to Cal with my mom and she really liked the school. She’s in education (a teacher) herself. And when they offered me, we talked about it and I decided that Cal was the best choice for me. So I called Coach Tedford back and let him know that I committed. He was really excited about it. All the coaches seemed really excited.

They talked to me about the idea that I’d match up well with some of the bigger receivers out there in the Pac 10 and they want me to play corner at Cal. I didn’t run the forty at the Nike camp because of a quad pull but I ran a 4.4 forty at Loyola.

I really like the atmosphere at Cal and a change of pace from LA is good. Being able to get off on my own after growing up in LA (Santa Monica) all my life and trying something new was part of it, too. I think I’d fit up great up there and that’s part of what appealed to me.

“Besides Coach Tedford, I really like Coach Gregory and Coach Gould a lot and Coach Littlejohn, too.

I’ll probably go up there (to Berkeley) for my official visit after the season,” continued Conte. “I’m sure I’ll also go up for a couple games or maybe when they come down here, I’ll go, too.

As far as Conte’s future classmates, he’s already been in contact.

“Alex (Lagemann) texted me the other day and I’ll be getting in touch with him. And when I visited Cal, Brock was up there. I talked to him and he’s a really cool guy.”

Conte fills the bill with the Bears desire to add size and speed to the corner position in a league stocked with big and talented receivers.

“I definitely use my height to my advantage and I’m physical. There was a big receiver from Bishop Amat last year (#16) who was averaging over 100 yards a game and I think he only had @10 yards when we were matched up last year. He was a pretty big guy, too. He was definitely bigger than me. And as far as hitting, it’s hard to go after guys too hard at corner, but I’m definitely a hitter.

Referring to Loyola’s midseason slump, Conte noted:

“We had some mid-season struggles after a pretty easy preseason. It was kind of a shock for us. We had a new coach and new system and kind of had some breakdowns in some of those games. We had some really close losses to Mater Dei and Bishop Amat and Servite. I think it just took some time to get used to the new systems put in on offense and defense, but we turned things around.

“We should be pretty good this year. We lost a lot of guys but we’re pretty stacked at the skill positions so we should do pretty well.”

Now that his decision is over and his mind is made up, Conte’s excited to be heading to Cal. What better way for a Cub to step up the next level than to become a Bear?

Use this link to view the bio page for Chris Conte.

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