TOWAMENCIN-  North Penn High School’s football star, R.J. Macnamara, signed his national letter of intent Wednesday morning, to play football at the Division 1 level while continuing his academics at the University of Delaware.

“It feels great cause all my hard work is finally starting to pay off,” Macnamara stated.

Macnamara was also considering Temple and Monmouth, but ended up choosing Delaware this past summer.

“When I went on my visit to Delaware it just kinda had the feel I was looking for.  It was like the campus I was looking for and meeting the coaches and everything, it was the people I wanted to be around and have for another four to five years,” Macnamara said.

He will join North Penn alum, Justis Henley, who played football for the Knights before becoming a defensive back for the Blue Hens.  Macnamara has been on the varsity football team for four years, started for about three and half seasons, and was one of the captains this year.

“It’s all about size and speed, so if you don’t have size and speed, it doesn’t matter what your attitude is, you have to have that ability.  But he definitely came with the framework.  He had a really tough sister so that helped him get through all the tough stuff.  He’s got a great group friends that are on the team and I think as a freshman, the older kids kinda brought him along which is good for a young guy to see how they reacted and how they led.  So as he went into his years, he wanted to turn into that leader that everyone looked to and obviously did an outstanding job doing that,” Head Coach Dick Beck said about Macnamara playing since his freshman year.

The Knights football program is a well respected one and Macnamara will try to take what he learned from Crawford Stadium to Tubby Raymond Field at Delaware Stadium.

“I wanna take all the hard work I did here and how I saw the team work and the family aspect I felt here, and bring it over there and all the hard work and effort,” Macnamara said.

Macnamara is not sure on his major yet, but he will play as an outside linebacker that can also blitz off the edge as a defensive end.  The Knights will have a big gap to fill next year as they say farewell to Macnamara.