Hendersonville cornerback Jameson Wharton signed with Vanderbilt football on Wednesday, reclassifying from the 2023 class, the program confirmed.
The 6-foot, 170-pounder also had an offer from Ole Miss. Hendersonville coach James Beasley is Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea’s cousin, which helped put Wharton on the Commodores’ radar.
Wharton afinished sixth in the 2021 TSSAA Large Class 100-meter state championships in 10.79.
“We’re obviously, we love the speed and it’s a measurable trait,” Lea said. “We know he can run. We know he has length and you also see someone who’s just got an underdeveloped frame that we want to go to work immediately in trying to build that up. … He’s a go-getter, he’s got bright eyes, he’s got a sense of urgency about going after what he wants and we want to fill the roster with guys who can run, with length and range and we know he can do that and so we were excited to add him to the class.”
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He is rated as a three-star recruit in the 247Sports Composite and the No. 65 cornerback nationwide.
Wharton is the second freshman cornerback in Vanderbilt’s 2022 class, but there are other multi-position players who could play the position, such as Trudell Berry. The Commodores also recently landed a commitment from UConn transfer Jeremy Lucien.
At Hendersonville, Wharton hosted a flag football tournament called Football for a Cure to raise money for charity.
Fellow Vanderbilt signee Andrew Paige is also from Hendersonville, though he attended Beech High School.
“We went on our official visit together over the weekend so we got to connect off the field which was new,” Paige said of Wharton.
Joe Spears contributed reporting
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
