‘He just stands out’: Choctaw County WR Caleb Cunningham rakes in D1 offers

Ackerman, MS (WCBI) — Choctaw County sophomore Caleb Cunningham hasn’t had a Saturday off in over a month. Instead, he’s been traveling the state and country on recruiting visits.

“It’s been tough but I know it’s exciting,” Caleb said.  “I love doing it.”

The five-star wide receiver has been on trips to Southern Miss, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and most recently Georgia. Plus, he’s got a trip to Gainesville to check out Florida this upcoming weekend.

“It can be a little bit exhausting,” his mother Bettie Cunningham said. “But he has the hard part. We just do what we can to get him where he needs to be. But he does all the work.”

Although football is Caleb’s future now, the sport wasn’t always on his radar.

He only played basketball when he was younger. It wasn’t until he was 7 years old when his mom suggested that he should try football that he gave it a shot.

To somewhat of Bettie’s surprise, he was a pretty good football from a young age. He continued to stand out going into junior high.

“When I was little, I was like, ‘I’m going to be a five-star one day.’ I always prayed about it,” Caleb said.

Then, he started as a freshman when he got to high school. That’s when it hit him that making it to the NFL was a real possibility. The Division I offers and fifth star followed shortly after.

His first offer came from Mississippi State in April.

“We were super excited about that. We didn’t expect for him to get this much exposure so soon,” Bettie said.

But Caleb’s success hasn’t come without sacrifice.

“It’s hard — working full time and being a full-time mom,” Bettie said. “Then practice and games and trying to get him to where he needs to be. It’s hard. It’s hard but we do what we can.”

In fact, Bettie was supposed to work this past weekend during Caleb’s visit to Georgia. But she knew she couldn’t miss it.

“She said, ‘I’m gonna try to do anything to go with you and your dad to go to the to the game,'” Caleb said.

Bettie made the trip to Athens and when they returned home, Caleb had an offer from Georgia.