Downey High receiver Ramirez puts pen to paper on Day 1 of football early signing period
Downey High’s Joseph Ramirez has QB in his social media handles but he will be catching passes at the next level, not throwing them.
The 6-foot-3 senior on the first day of the football early signing period Wednesday, in front of friends, family, teammates and coaches, signed to play Division I football at Northern Arizona University on scholarship. He will play wide receiver for the Lumberjacks.
Ramirez started his career playing running back and safety at the youth level and then played quarterback through his freshman year of high school. After one year as the junior varsity quarterback, Ramirez made the switch to receiver and never looked back.
“It was my freshman year going into my sophomore year,” Ramirez said. “I knew I wasn’t going to play quarterback my sophomore year because we still had Conner (Stoddard) here and coach [Jeremy] Plaa told me that they could see me competing at a different position because I’m athletic enough to play at that level. I just took it from there and tried to play wherever I could.”
He wasn’t completely done playing quarterback, though. Last season, when starter Carson Lamb was injured, Ramirez stepped in as the team’s signal caller for four games, going 5-0 in starts. When Lamb returned later that season, Ramirez went back to receiver.
In his three-year varsity career, Ramirez caught 70 passes for 1,740 yards and 25 touchdowns. His senior year was by far his most productive, recording career highs in catches (49), yards (1,150) and touchdowns (17). He helped the Knights reach the Sac-Joaquin Section quarterfinals all three varsity seasons. He also tallied 810 rushing yards 850 yards passing and punted and returned kicks.
Ramirez picked up an offer from Pacific University over the summer, and NAU’s Division I offer came just before the start of the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs. He was offered Nov. 3, committed Nov. 25 and signed Wednesday.
“I believed it would (come),” Ramirez said of anticipating a Division I scholarship offer, “and I wasn’t really stressing over it too much because I was trusting God and always telling myself it’s not my timing, it’s God’s timing. I was never stressing over when the offer would come, I would just work and if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”
Ramirez is one of at least 21 early signees who will join the Lumberjacks’ roster next season. He is one of 12 Californians in the signing class and the only one from the Sac-Joaquin Section. Ramirez is also the only wide receiver as of Dec. 4 to sign during the early signing period (Dec. 4-6).
“NAU made it a really easy decision for my family and I,” he said. “We went up there and it’s a beautiful place. The big deal-maker for us was the staff. They’re a young staff that just got there and it’s a family feeling and we really love that.”
