Defensive back Trevin Wade became Arizona’s 16th verbal commitment yesterday.

Wade visited the UA campus over the weekend despite being nagged by a sore throat and turned down a deferred scholarship offer from California after seeing the Wildcats’ prodigious weight room.

The opportunity to hoop it up again with hometown pals Joseph and Terrell Reese was also an assist.

“”It feels like it’d be a good fit for me to be somewhere where I know some people,”” Wade said in a phone interview yesterday.

Wade was all over the field as a senior in Round Rock, Texas, amassing more than 1,500 total yards and scoring 10 touchdowns as a quarterback and wide receiver. He also played at safety and led his district in punting over a three-week span.

Yet despite his versatility and 4.4-second 40-yard-dash speed, the 5-foot-10, 163-pound athlete was shunned altogether by the Big 12 Conference and received only a greyshirt offer from California.

If Wade had accepted it, he would have had to sit out a season and wait until next spring to get a scholarship from Cal’s 2008 class.

Luckily for him, Arizona stepped in offering the chance to play immediately. Coaches told him that with junior cornerbacks Antoine Cason and Wilrey Fontenot poised to depart after next year, he could make a case for future playing time in mop-up duty or at safety.

“”It’s okay. I like the Pac-10 better, with those West Coast receivers,”” Wade said. “”I think I can prepare better guarding those bigger receivers.””

Another positive Wade saw in Arizona was instant camaraderie. Playing host on his campus visit was freshman wide receiver Terrell Reese, who along with his brother Joseph, an incoming freshman running back, played basketball with Wade from the fifth through eighth grades.

And there also was the matter of his high school teammates, who will be taking the field next fall with the likes of Iowa State, LSU and Purdue.

“”I don’t want to be in home when they’re in college, because we always talk,”” Wade said. “”I don’t think it would be cool if they’re there and I’m here.””

Wade is another example of a talented Texas recruit being lost amid the scramble by schools to gobble up the state’s more high-profile prospects, said Josh Gershon of goazcats.com, a recruiting Web site on the Rivals network.

“”Which happens all the time,”” he said. “”(UA wide receiver) Mike Thomas is a guy that not many people wanted either. (H-back) Earl Mitchell, not very people wanted. Look at those two guys.””

Verbal commitments are non-binding until athletes sign national letters-of-intent. National signing day is tomorrow.