Esperanza’s Sonuyi Chooses MIT Over Cal, Harvard

Esperanza running back Temitope Sonuyi, The Times’ Orange County football player of the year, said Friday he will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and play Division III football for the Engineers, at least during his freshman year.

Sonuyi, who chose MIT over Harvard and California, had been debating whether to play football or focus on his studies until learning that MIT uses a pass-fail system for freshman students.

“That will be less pressure,” said Sonuyi, who plans to major in computer engineering. “Then I’ll see how it goes before [deciding whether to play] my sophomore year.”

Sonuyi, 5 feet 9 and 205 pounds, rushed for a county-best 2,492 yards and 30 touchdowns last season for an Aztec team that reached the semifinals of the Southern Section Division I playoffs. He will be MIT’s most high-profile freshman, Coach Dwight Smith said.

“From everything I’ve heard, he sounds like a super player by our standards,” said Smith, who has never seen tape of Sonuyi. “He should come out here and do a good job. This is kind of a windfall for us.”

Smith said Sonuyi should get a chance for immediate playing time since MIT returns none of its starting tailbacks. The Engineers won their final four games last season to finish 4-5.

Sonuyi should fit right in at a school known more for producing Rhodes Scholars than top-notch athletes. The Esperanza senior is ranked No. 1 in his class of about 700 based on a weighted grade-point average scale and achieved a score of 1,490 (out of 1,600) on his SAT.

He said he chose MIT because it fit his academic needs.

“Since I’m majoring in computer engineering, that’s definitely the school I’m going to be attending,” he said. “I couldn’t find any school that would beat MIT.”

Sonuyi said he might participate in a summer-long preparation program for incoming freshmen at MIT that would cause him to miss the Shrine All-Star Classic July 7, the Orange County North-South all-star game July 13 and the inaugural game between all-stars from Orange and Los Angeles counties. He has been selected to participate in all of those games.

Sonuyi is waiting to hear whether he has been accepted into the summer program. “I have mixed emotions about it,” he said. “It would be a great opportunity, but these would be my last real [high school] games.”