Edwardsville’s Epenesa named preseason All-American by MaxPreps

Already heading into his senior year as a player several scouting services are calling the top defensive end recruit in the nation, Edwardsville High senior A.J. Epenesa on Thursday was named a MaxPreps Preseason Football All-American.

The 6-foot-5, 260-pound Iowa Hawkeyes recruit was the only metro-east player to crack the large-school All-American teams — offense or defense — released this week by MaxPreps.com. All-Americans from medium and small schools will be announced by MaxPreps in the next two weeks.

Rivals.com and Scout.com both have Epenesa ranked as the nation's No. 1 defensive end recruit. Rivals has Epenesa as the 34th overall recruit regardless of position and Scout has him rated No. 22 overall.

Epenesa also shows up at No. 60 on the ESPN 300 list of incoming senior recruits in the country and he was chosen to play in the U.S. Army All-American Game next January in San Antonio.

Following his junior season at Edwardsville, which include six sacks and 11 tackles for loss, Epenesa was named to the MaxPreps Junior All-American Team. He also is a standout basketball player and track and field athlete for the Tigers.

This story was originally published July 14, 2016 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Edwardsville’s Epenesa named preseason All-American by MaxPreps."