Lund on Stanford commitment status
A little more than a month after he committed to Stanford in late November, 2015, four-star Cardinal commit Sione Lund made another key decision about his future. The Utah native decided to transfer from Brighton High School to Waterford, a private school with a strong academic reputation. The decision was made with an eye on challenging himself academically as well benefiting Lund in all aspects of life.
"Everything has been great," Lund said. "The new school, the teachers are great. The environment I'm in, it's an awesome place to be. The coaches at Stanford, the coaching staff has been totally supportive of my decision to do that. They've been behind my back the whole way."
Although he did transfer, Lund intends to play his senior football season for Brighton - that's permissible under state high school rules because Waterford doesn't have a football team.
Lund keep in touch with his area recruiter from Stanford, Cardinal defensive coordinator Lance Anderson.
"Coach Lance Anderson, he's been a great recruiter," Lund said. "He's just an awesome guy. Every time I get to talk to him, it's not always about football. Our relationship, it's not really football as much, but we just talk about other areas of life."
"His recruiting message is of course keep your (focus) in the books. Also we believe in the same things with our faith... So I ask him sometimes just some questions about the LDS players on the team and he shares with me some experiences they've had. It's kind of cool how we can connect in that way, too."
Lund's commitment to Stanford hasn't prevented other programs from continuing to recruit him. And the Rivals250 standout does plan to take visits to other schools this spring.
He's on UCLA's campus today and might visit Michigan and perhaps other program(s). The Bruins and Wolverines continue to recruit him, as do BYU and Utah, among others. LSU was the latest program to join the pursuit, extending Lund an offer today.
"I might check out a couple of other schools just because they've been reaching out to me a lot," Lund said. "Just keep an open mind, really. I'm committed, but why not keep an open mind."
Still, Stanford will be hard to beat in Lund's recruitment.
"I'm pretty solid right now," Lund said. "It's a long way until Signing Day so of course I'm going to check out some other schools and see what's out there as well just because it's a long way but, I mean, it's rare - you don't really get the opportunity to go to Stanford. So I'm pretty firm with my commitment there."
Lund met fellow 2017 Cardinal commit Stu Head at Stanford's victory over Notre Dame last fall and the two stay in touch. He also plans to form rapports with other members of Stanford's class in the coming months.
Lund is currently undecided on if or when he will serve his LDS church mission.
"That's definitely still in the air," Lund said. "It's something I still haven't figured out yet. I'm still waiting or that feeling to get whether I should or not. It's still up in the air. I think I'll definitely have an answer pretty soon."