Caleb selected for U.S. Army All-American Bowl

Clover Hill senior Joel Caleb, the top-ranked high school football recruit in Virginia, was officially selected to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl Friday afternoon during a ceremony in the school auditorium.

Caleb will be one of 90 elite high school football players in the game, which will be played Jan. 7, 2012 in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The annual East vs. West matchup will be televised nationally by NBC at 1 p.m.

"I give a lot of credit to my coaches and teammates. They all played a big part in me getting here," said Caleb, who acknowledged he was uncomfortable with all the attention. "I'm just a high school football player."

Caleb produced more than 6,000 yards of total offense and more than 80 touchdowns during four years as a starter at Clover Hill, which went 31-8 with him in the lineup.

"We knew he was going to be a special athlete," Clover Hill coach Sean O'Hare said. "We had no idea he could get this far."

O'Hare will accompany Caleb and his mother to San Antonio, where he'll attend the U.S. Army Coaches Academy -- an elite three-day learning experience featuring NFL and NCAA coaches -- as well as participating in game-week activities.

For more than 11 years, the U.S. Army All-American Bowl has been the nation's premier high school all-star game. College and NFL stars such as Adrian Peterson, Tim Tebow and Mark Sanchez all made their national debuts in the game.

In the past, several big-time recruits have used the game as the setting to announce where they'll play college football. That's Caleb's plan at the moment, although he left open the possibility of making the announcement on National Signing Day in February.

Some of the nation's top collegiate programs are on Caleb's list of finalists, including Virginia Tech.