Winton Woods football star Justin Hill to announce verbal college commitment

Winton Woods senior linebacker and edge rusher Justin Hill is set to announce Wednesday afternoon where he's given a verbal commitment for college football.

Hill, a four-star player, is making the much-anticipated announcement on his 17th birthday inside the Winton Woods High School gymnasium in front of family, friends and coaches at 1 p.m.

Hill, rated Ohio’s No. 4 player in the 2025 class by 247 Sports and the nation’s No. 7 edge rusher, has narrowed his choices to Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon and University of Southern California as his finalists. He took official visits to the four programs in June.

The 6-foot-3, 235-pound Hill has impressed college coaches throughout a recruiting journey that's earned him nearly 30 scholarship offers since October 2021.

Hill, a Division II first-team all-state selection as a junior, discussed with WCPO 9 Sports this spring how name, image and likeness (NIL) impacted his recruiting journey.

"I just feel like I've tried to take it all in and mature myself enough to be able to understand this type of stuff," Hill said this spring. "I understand that going on visits and seeing the type of people that I'm around, this is a business. And it's not nothing that you can be childish with."

Winton Woods, which earned an 8-4 record in 2023, opens the season at 2023 Division I state runner-up Springfield on Aug. 23.

Hill is able to sign his National Letter of Intent Dec. 4.

It's not just a football-related future for Hill, who has a 3.7 grade-point average. He wants to major in mechanical or chemical engineering with a minor in real estate.

"Life after football is more important than this amount of money that you're going to make these four years that you're in college because you can go somewhere and make a high lot of money and then be a lower round draft pick and don't make as much and not have the type of degree to support that," Hill said.

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