New Iberia Senior High’s Michael Lamothe impressed the coaches at Texas A&M enough to be offered a scholarship to play football in College Station even before his senior season.

The Yellow Jackets’ standout linebacker was equally impressed by the coaches and facilities at A&M, committing recently to sign a national letter of intent to play football with the Aggies.

“Last month me and my family went over there and took an unofficial visit,” said Lamothe. “I was very impressed by the facilities and the coaches.

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“I plan to sign in the early signing period. I have no intentions of changing my commitment.”

Lamothe said he has received letters of interest from about 50 schools and has scholarship offers already from Tulane, Arkansas and Rice universities. He also was looking at LSU, but said the Tigers had no interest in offering him a scholarship this early.

And once Texas A&M showed such interest, that made Lamothe’s choice easy. A&M offensive line coach Jim Turner visited the Jackets during May workouts for an evaluation of Lamothe.

“They had an evaluation process , and they said they were really interested and wanted to give me a scholarship,” said Lamothe. “From there they kept in contact with me.”

Yellow Jackets coach Rick Hutson said that the NISH coaching staff sent out a highlight film of Lamothe to various schools in the spring, and the A&M coaches called as soon as they’d viewed it to set up a time to visit New Iberia.

“As soon as they could, they came to see him,” said Hutson. “He was in baseball late because of the playoffs, but once he got to spring football they came and saw him. The offer came pretty quick after that.”

Lamothe said he received the offer around May 22.

Chosen by the sports staff of The Daily Iberian as a first-team member of the Best of the Teche football team last season as a junior, Lamothe also has been named to the Best of the Teche baseball team twice.

His decision to attend A&M was in part influenced by older brother Jordan, a mechanical engineering student at LSU who earned first team Best of the Teche baseball honors in the spring of 2005 and football honors in the fall of 2005. Michael Lamothe scored a 25 on his ACT and has a 4.0 grade point average.

“My brother is a mechanical engineer at LSU, and I was looking to go into the same thing,” said Lamothe. “Everyone was hyping how good A&M is for its engineering program, and when we went we saw the same thing.”

A&M plans to give Lamothe a look at linebacker, tight end and perhaps strong safety. He also played quarterback in short yardage situations for the Jackets last year, primarily using his good size (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) to run the ball on goal-line plays. He also played tight end and punted for the Jackets.

At linebacker, he made 40 solo tackles and had 51 assists as a junior, 12 tackles for loss and three sacks. He also made an interception, forced a fumble and recovered a fumble.

Lamothe, the son of David and Janie Lamothe, said that people can expect to hear about his younger brother, Kyle, soon. Kyle Lamothe will be a sophomore for the Jackets this year.

“My little brother is about to get some notice,” said Michael Lamothe. “When the coaches came and saw him, they couldn’t tell the difference between us.”

For now, though, it’s Michael’s time. And he’s happy with his choice of schools.

“You would think I would go to LSU because I’m from Louisiana and it’s the state school, but I have no regrets about choosing Texas A&M,” said Lamothe.