The long and winding recruiting trail for one of the nation's top college football recruits is coming to an end. Cretin-Derham Hall offensive lineman Seantrel Henderson will officially sign his National Letter of Intent on Thursday and will play for USC, the team he announced he was going to sign with during a televised event on Feb. 3.

His father, Sean Henderson, confirmed Seantrel will put pen to paper on Thursday at the high school. He said the family received word this past Friday that Seantrel had received a high enough score on his most recent attempt at taking the ACT to qualify academically at USC. Seantrel had taken the standardized test two previous times, Sean Henderson said.

The family had been waiting to see if possible sanctions against USC would be severe enough to make other options more attractive, Sean said, but by late last week Seantrel had firmed up his decision to stick with the Trojans even though no decision on penalties has been reached by the NCAA.

"We figured we would take as much time as we needed. We didn't really know what was going on with the seriousness of the situation (at USC). At the same time, (there were) possible options he could exercise," Sean Henderson said. "Miami and Ohio State were still in contact. Those were always still options."

But not anymore. Sean Henderson said the family picked Thursday as the day to sign in order to not conflict with Seantrel's basketball season (the Raiders have a game Tuesday and could play again Friday in the section finals if they advance).