Four-star Micah Mays caps wild week by making it official with Wake Forest

PALM BEACH GARDENS − All-American wide receiver Micah Mays' wild week started with boarding a plane to Texas to compete in the U.S. Army Bowl and ended with making his commitment to Wake Forest football official.

First on the four-star's Early Signing Period docket was signing his National Letter of Intent.

Kind of.

According to Mays, Wake head coach Dave Clawson wanted to lock him in bright and early before tempting offers like Miami and N.C. State − two of 40 total − could lure him from Winston-Salem. However, the Benjamin senior's signing ceremony wasn't until the evening of Dec. 21.

One electronic signature and submission later, Mays was a member of a Power 5 roster. Better yet, Clawson's roster of choice.

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Officially a Demon Deacon, next on Mays' busy schedule was supporting fellow Wake Forest signee Kerrington Lee, a three-star defensive end at nearby Dwyer High.

Mays slipped into a shirt emblazoned with a 'WF' and showed off the speed that sparked his recruitment to make it to the ceremony, striding in right on time to ask his newest teammate what early enrollment entailed and how to get prepared for the move north next fall.

"I'm definitely going to be looking to Kerrington for guidance. Seeing how he goes about his time management and stuff like that, how to go about my classes and how to work," Mays said, hoping they can eventually be roommates.

After snapping a picture, Mays slid out. He was waiting for a call from West Palm Beach's ESPN affiliate to do a radio interview, which eventually happened after an initial dial to a confused Micah Mays Sr, his dad.

Mays tackled a variety of topics, from the connection he's had to Wake Forest from the beginning, how he plans to establish chemistry with the quarterbacks to what'll set him apart from the rest of the Deacs' 2023 recruiting class and receiver room that'll let him see playing time early.

Hours after he was off the phone, Mays' inbox started filling up with emails from Wake Forest.

"Yo! I just got a training packet with a bunch of workouts and stretches I can do until I go," Mays said. "It's like 40 pages."

Mays was a little busy prepping for his last big event of the day, the celebratory ceremony at Benjamin, to try any out. Instead, surrounded by coaches, teammates, friends and family, Mays took a seat at a table dressed in Buccaneer orange holding a mock LOI to get the staple National Signing Day photo.

Of Mays' rigorous schedule, arguably the most important task was changing from slides that morning into a clean pair of Jordans for the night, the colorway none other than black and a glimmering gold, reassuring anyone who didn't know already that he was headed to Wake.

'100 percent committed'

There was a slew of chatter surrounding where Mays would take his speed and skill ahead of National Signing Day. Even at the celebration for making the deal said-and-done, there were murmurs in the crowd questioning whether a last-minute flip was possible.

Mays took one last official visit to N.C. State in early December and there had been rumors that Miami coach Mario Cristobal's recruiting loafers had worked their magic.

Mays' social media posts leading up to the big day, among them a Dec. 5 teaser that he'd been selected for the U.S. Army Bowl game, featured replies from supporters of the U seeking to sign another backyard hero and Wolfpack members alike.

The buzz only grew once Mays left Palm Beach Gardens to take field at the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

His appearance in the U.S. Army Bowl, highlighted by a first down catch and a fumble recovery, came just four days before he signed to Wake on Dec. 21, but Mays has been "100 percent committed" officially since August.

Unofficially, you could say he's been committed since he first visited the campus in June. Or January, when Wake became the first Power 5 program to give Mays the chance to play at the next level.

Having seen Park Vista former A.T. Perry's development at Wake into a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist, Mays was sold early by the idea of having the wideout there as a "big brother" figure to learn from. Wake's other selling factors were having four seasons and the academics, as Mays hopes to major in communications.

Mom played 'big role' in Wake decision

While at a family watch party for the bowl game on Dec. 17, Mays' mother Rachelle reflected on his most recent season.

"I'm his haven so I see it all," Mays said, watching from afar and seeing her son play on television for the first time.

Mays has been there for the highs, like finding out she's the mother of Palm Beach County's first All-American selection since Benjamin alum-turned-Buffalo Bill Kaiir Elam. She's been there for the lows, too, recalling post-loss car rides where Mays ran through the game play-by-play wondering what he could've done for the Bucs to win.

"Benjamin did the best they could with what they had," Mays said, praising back-up starter Jacob Cosby-Mosley, a safety by nature assigned to double-duty for the 2022 season.

Without a true quarterback who could be a permanent fixture in the pocket, Benjamin finished 5-5 in region semifinals and Mays with a stat line of 503 receiving yards for eight touchdowns on 27 catches.

"Mike obviously would've loved more touches and more touchdowns, but hey, when he got the ball he did what he was supposed to do," Mays said.

She stopped to give the TV a perfectly timed shout: "Give the ball to Six!"

Swapping his traditional No. 1 and Benjamin jersey, Mays donned a white No. 6 penny to represent the Army Bowl's "Gold Team."

Mays scanned the room for a video, capturing the faces and cheers of teammates, friends and family watching Micah from afar, pausing to showing pictures of a mother-son Facetime as the youngster took the first of what recruiting analysts expect to be many steps on the field at Jerry World.

"Dad got that Texas ride, but I get everything else. Saturday, every other game is going to be mom," Mays said.

After five days full of events from a charity flag football game for girls, sessions with keynote speakers and practices with the nation's top college coaches for his closest simulation of the "atmosphere" at the next level to date, Mays didn't return from Texas with a win, but he did come home to one proud parent.

"I hope she can pick up the phone when I go to Wake Forest," Mays joked of his mom's absence.

He admitted she played a "big role" in his decision to attend Wake, recalling how "every coach would come banging on her door and her phone would be blowing up" in the last few months.

Fortunately, Mays still has a few more months with his greatest confidant and his mom one last semester at Benjamin to be in the stands for every competition.

"She's my mom. I can go to her for anything, knowing she's there before a game, after a game, it really means a lot to me," Mays said.

Before he put pen to paper the day of his signing ceremony, Mays asked his parents to come sit by his side.

"You don't have to tell me twice," his mother beamed, wrapping her arm around her boy, Palm Beach's next best chance at a first-round draft pick.

"Coach [Eric] Kresser told me when Micah was an eighth grader, 'Watch what happens,' " Mays said.

'Watch what happens'

What would eventually happen took a while. Before 2022, Mays had just one offer: Appalachian State.

Oddly enough, the "boom" came after Covid put an indefinite end to high school football around the country.

A summer to do nothing but intensive workouts with his former Grambling State quarterback dad led to Mays' breakout season with the Bucs.

As a junior, Mays had 42 catches for a team-leading 725 yards and hauled in seven touchdowns to see Benjamin just short of the Final Four as the choice target for Southern Methodist commit Tyler Aronson.

He watched his recruitment take off with offers from his dad's alma mater, along with Duke, Boston College, Pitt, Iowa State, Georgia Southern, West Virginia, Minnesota and Georgia Tech.

Staying conditioned over the winter with basketball, Mays was ready for a historic track and field season by spring.

He won four individual events in districts, two at regionals, and the 400-meter dash (47.52) and triple jump (45’11.75”) titles, plus third in the high jump, at states. The 26 points he scored alone placed him eighth overall in team competition at the 1A championships and helped Benjamin's program to its first state title.

After April's district meet, Louisville, Vanderbilt and Temple offered. His state results in May brought East Carolina, Syracuse, Colorado, Georgia State, James Madison and Utah.

On top of the world and on track for a final fall that would attract that much more Division I attention, Mays picked up Penn State and Virginia Tech in July, but Aronson's offseason departure for Saint Thomas Aquinas, later Vero Beach, ultimately set Benjamin football on a different trajectory for the 2022 season.

Nonetheless, Mays' measurables and potential have proven greater than any adversity he's had to face.

Now, he's eager to show Wake Forest the one-handed touchdown catches that gave him the nickname "Air Mays."

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Micah Mays makes it official with Wake Forest after wild Early Signing Period