Cholewa looking forward to UCF career
Sunday was a big day at Mason Cholewa's household.
The UCF defensive line commit from Pennsylvania hosted a party with family, friends, neighbors, teammates and oh yeah, the UCF coaching staff too.
His future coaches - Scott Frost, Erik Chinander and Mike Dawson - timed their trip well for a final home visit. On the day of the AFC Championship Game, Frost came aptly dressed with a Pittsburgh Steelers ballcap. Cholewa lives in McKees Rocks, about a 15-minute drive to Heinz Field. Maybe 20 with traffic.
"It was a really good day," Cholewa said. "Everybody get along, just real nice. After the party, I sat down with the coaches and we all talked about signing day, the letter of intent and all those rules."
Defensive end is where UCF sees Cholewa, who says he's now 6-foot-7 and 275 pounds, about an inch taller than he was a year ago.
"I lost a lot of weight during the season, got real skinny like 250," Cholewa said. "When football season ended I've just been lifting and eating, trying to keep it up. The coaches think I could comfortably play at 300."
Cholewa committed last summer and has stayed true to his word throughout the entire process. He took his official visit back in November.
"The coaches said to have fun in high school while it lasts because I'm going to be at UCF before you know it," Cholewa said. "High school is one of the most important times of your life. The freshmen move down in June. I'm coming down on June 15 just so we can get all the stuff I'll need, like furniture. I have some family down there too."
Freshmen stay in four-bedroom condo-style dorms, sharing a living and kitchen space. Cholewa said the plan is to room with Gabriel Davis, Cole Schneider and Samuel Jackson.
"I'm actually on Xbox right now with Gabe," Cholewa said. "I'm real close with all the guys. We're on a group chat and we talk every day. Literally every single day. It's real close, like a family. I can't wait to go down there in June and ball out with them."
No one was more excited when news surfaced last week that UCF had inked a home-and-home series with Pittsburgh. The Knights host the Panthers in 2018, then will return the trip in 2019.
"I was like dang!," Cholewa said. "I was in class. Everybody in Pittsburgh is a big Pitt fan and everybody has the ESPN app, so everybody's phones went off with the alert about the UCF-Pitt series and they all turned around and looked at me. They were like, 'Mason, you'll be playing Pitt!' A lot of people said they were going to go down. I'm really close with our principal who said he was going to go to the game. The game at Pitt is in 2019 when I'll be a junior. I'm sure I'll have a lot of my high school friends there. I have a lot of family near Buffalo, New York and it's only a three-and-a-half drive to Pittsburgh."
Cholewa will officially sign next Wednesday, realizing a lifelong dream to play college football.
"I'm so honored to have a scholarship so my parents don't have to pay for anything," Cholewa said. "They've helped and supported me so much through the years, I'm so happy that I can say, 'Thank you, I've got this.'"
Looking forward to his UCF career, Cholewa has a big vision.
"I want to be an All American," he said. "I just want to be remembered. I want to be remembered as one of the great defensive ends to come out of UCF. I also want to win a national championship as crazy as that sounds because I don't think anybody in our conference has won a national championship. I want to do the impossible."