Bye Bye Banner: Lakes Blue Chip Star Chooses USC

Sorry, Dawgs.

In one of the most anticipated signing decisions of any high school player from the Northwest, Lakes High offensive tackle announced Monday that he plans to head to the University of Southern California to play football.

The 6-foot-9, 310-pound senior made the announcement in front of a crowd at Lakes, reports The (Tacoma) News Tribune.

He chose USC over Washington and Oklahoma. He's ranked 16th nationally and first in the state, according to Rivals.com.

Here's more from the LA Times and Rivals.com (requires membership).

The announcement undoubtedly creates disappointment from some UW fans and local sports media. In a year in which a handful of area star athletes chose to attend out-of-state schools (KaiVarae Russell of Mariner and Walker Williams of Tacoma Baptist in particular), Banner turned into the biggest prize of this year's signing class.

For fans who argued against local athletes choosing out-of-state schools instead of local colleges, Banner's decision became a heated topic on blogs, comment boards and sports radio.

We all know now where he'll be going. Only instead of Montlake, Banner will be taking his skills to Los Angeles.

Patch will have more on this story later.