It didn’t take long for Ricky Slade Sr. and his wife, Heather, to realize their son was gifted athletically.

When Ricky Slade Jr. was only 5 years old, he followed in his sister’s footsteps, signing up for a local soccer league. At that age, the players react more like a school of sardines than anything you’ve seen in the World Cup this summer. While the opposing goalkeepers stand idly by in front of their respective nets, the other 20 players usually bunch up in pursuit of the ball, kicking anything and everything in the way.

However, a young Ricky Slade Jr. knew there was a better way. He knew that if he avoided the swarm, it was only a matter of time until he got an easy shot on net.

“You could always tell that he was a bit ahead of everyone else on the field. We saw it right away in soccer. He just thought a bit differently than everyone else,” Slade’s father said. “At that age, all the kids just run to the ball and it’s basically just a big bunch of kids all grouped together. Ricky would always stay outside the huddle and wait for the ball to pop out.

“Athletically then, he was always the fastest, so once he got the ball, he’d take it up the field and score. My wife and I thought he was just getting lucky at first, but he would do it game after game. That’s when we kind of knew that he had a knack for not just using his speed to his advantage, but also outsmarting the other kids.”

Once Slade found football a year later, soccer was quickly in the rearview mirror. But just like on the soccer field, he stood out from day one, outrunning and outsmarting the competition throughout his Pop Warner years. Even as he approached his freshman season, it was clear throughout two-a-days that his athleticism was going to force C.D. Hylton’s head coach, former Denver Broncos defensive back Ted Lilly, to get him on the field. However, there was one issue: his size.

“He was pretty small his first season,” Slade Sr. said. “Before his freshman year, that summer, he started working with a trainer to add weight. I think he was around 5-7, 150, somewhere around there. Compared to some of the guys out there, he was one of the smallest guys.

“During his first scrimmage then with the varsity, he got hit so hard that his helmet popped off. We were a little worried, but he didn’t back down at all. In fact, on his next touch, he took the ball 70 yards for a touchdown. By the end of that game, he realized that it was a totally different game in high school.”

Slade went on to amass 1,821 yards of total offense his freshman season, scoring 21 touchdowns. Those numbers included a 381-yard, eight-touchdown performance just four weeks into the 2014 season. From that moment forward, Slade became one of the most sought-after prospects in Virginia, as Clemson, Ohio State, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia Tech were just a few of the programs that extended offers in the months that followed. Penn State joined those schools in the beginning of December, and it didn’t take Slade long to check out University Park, as he and his family attended the Blue-White Game in April 2015.

“I don’t remember too many specifics from that visit first visit, but I do remember that they set the bar pretty high over the course of the first two or three trips that we took,” Slade Sr. said. “From that point forward, we just kept going back and going back. I believe we visited seven or eight times by the time he committed.”

Slade visited nearly a dozen schools throughout his sophomore and junior years, but by the end of 2016, it was clear that the Nittany Lions were in an excellent position. Virginia Tech and Ohio State also had his attention, but after visiting Penn State for a junior day in January 2017, Slade knew where he wanted to be, verbally committing to the Lions the following month.

“Penn State’s proximity to home was a big reason why they were always going to be in the mix for Ricky, but also, their coaches are incredible people,” Slade Sr. said. “They’re very straightforward and honest people. We all really appreciated their candor right from the start.

“So, when you add in the fact that Ricky didn’t want to go too far away from home, it was pretty clear early on that Penn State was going to be a school he seriously considered. They did an excellent job recruiting him. We loved how well they recruited him. It wasn’t just one or two coaches with them. It was literally the entire coaching staff, from the head coach on down to even their interns. Everyone was just great to us.”

Slade’s relationships with the entire offensive staff were a major reason why James Franklin and his assistants didn’t have to panic just three weeks before he was set to sign. Following the news late in November that Joe Moorhead would be taking running backs coach Charles Huff with him to Mississippi State, Slade’s parents were left wondering what would happen back in Happy Valley. Their son wasn’t nearly as concerned.

“Ricky never thought twice when that happened,” Slade Sr. said. “When Coach Moorhead left, that was expected. We always knew that there was a good chance he was going to get a head coaching job at a good school. But when Coach Huff left with him, that was unexpected.

“I think my wife and I were more concerned than he was. My wife had only really gotten to know Coach Huff well, on a personal level. But Ricky never thought twice. There was never any doubt that he was going to end up somewhere else.”

Slade signed with the Lions on Dec. 20. An Under Armour All-American, he’s one of the most decorated high school prospects to sign under Franklin. In addition to being named the 2017 Gatorade Player of the Year in Virginia, Slade was a two-time VHSL Class 6A All-State selection. He also earned multiple All-Met honors from The Washington Post, including first-team honors in 2017.

His coach believes that Nittany Lion fans have a lot to look forward to over the next four years. “What Ricky brings to Penn State is a player who is one of the hardest-working players with the competitive nature that drives him to be successful,” Lilly told GoPSUsports.com. “He loves the team atmosphere and he brings a skill set that will potentially see him playing on Sundays in the future.”