{"id":411658,"date":"2026-08-20T07:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/411658\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T07:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:32:08","slug":"three-star-prospect-loia-valade-joins-texas-am-football-effective-immediately","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/411658\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-Star prospect Loia Valade joins Texas A&#038;M football effective immediately"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) &#8211; With just over two weeks to go until the start of the season, Texas A&amp;M football is adding another piece to its defensive backfield effective immediately.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The program announced Wednesday that consensus three-star prospect Loia Valade has officially joined the Aggies after reclassifying to the 2026 class.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The 6-foot, 190-pound Valade arrives in College Station after a two-season stint at the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. During his time with the Tornado, Valade helped guide the team to a 21-5 record, culminating in a TSSAA Division II-AAA State Championship in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A native of Boca Raton, Florida, who is originally from Canada, Valade proved to be a versatile two-way threat in high school:<\/p>\n<p>Defense:\u00a0Logged 31 tackles, one tackle for loss, and two interceptions (including one returned for a touchdown).Offense:\u00a0Registered 43 catches for 664 yards and seven touchdowns.Special Teams:\u00a0Added six kickoff returns for 114 yards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Valade is highly regarded by major recruiting services. Nationally, he is rated as the No. 42 defensive back by ESPN, No. 46 by Rivals and On3, and No. 60 by 247Sports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In the state of Florida, he is ranked as the No. 36 prospect by Rivals, No. 43 by On3, and No. 54 by ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KBTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) &#8211; With just over two weeks to go until the start of the season,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-411658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}