Sabino’s Bushman picks BYU

Matt Bushman grew up watching his uncle play football at BYU and considered him and his teammates celebrities and superstars.

Now he can be just like them.

The Sabino High senior and three-sport athlete verbally committed to play football and baseball at BYU on Monday afternoon, picking the Cougars over the Arizona Wildcats and Utah Utes of the Pac-12.

“(BYU) is a great academic school, it’s a winning football program and it’s a great tradition of having good tight ends,” Bushman said in front of his family and teammates who gathered around him in the school’s weight room.

He will go on a two-year mission with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before he takes the football field in the fall of 2016 at the earliest.

Bushman’s uncle, Quinn Gooch, graduated from Sabino in 2000 and played at BYU alongside star tight end Dennis Pitta, who won a Super Bowl with the Ravens last season. Bushman said he remembers spending time around Gooch and his teammates, trying to get autographs.

“He thought they were rock stars,” said Ben Bushman, Matt’s father. “Dennis Pitta was Quinn’s friend and we got to talk with him, be around him and see him play. That definitely had some influence on Matt.”

Additionally, both Bushman’s parents graduated from BYU in 1992 and his older brother Riley also went on to play linebacker there but had his career cut short by injuries.

“It’s been around my whole life,” he said. “I’ve always liked BYU.”

Bushman, a 6-foot-6-inch, 215-pound tight end and defensive end with the Sabercats, is rated a three-star tight end by Scout.com recruiting service. He also had football offers from Colorado, Colorado State, Duke, Nevada, Pennsylvania and San Diego State.

He said he had to wait it out and put in extra work by going to more camps before he earned the BYU offer.

“Doing that showed that I really wanted that scholarship, that I really wanted to go there,” said Bushman, who also has played basketball for Sabino. “Growing up it’s been that school that I wanted to go to.”

Sabino coach Jay Campos believes Bushman made the best choice for himself by picking the Cougars. However, he also said it was hard for him not to choose the Wildcats because of how they often use a split-out hybrid tight end, something that would have been ideal for Bushman’s skill set.

“Arizona did a fantastic job recruiting Matt, as did Utah, and they made him think a little bit about it,” Campos said. “But at the end of the day, the tradition, the quality of the institution, the religious purposes, there are a lot of great reasons to go to BYU.”

In only seven games this season, Bushman has already surpassed his totals from last year. He has caught 40 passes for 992 yards and 16 touchdowns, with three regular-season games left before the state playoffs begin next month.

“At the end of the day, he’s going to hold a lot of records here at Sabino and I hope he goes to BYU and sets some records there as well,” Campos said. “He’s the kind of kick that’s just going to keep on getting better and I think the best is yet to come.”