Signing Day Wrap-Up

[Aggie One]

Signature here: National singing day collects five local athletes
By PATRICK MASON
Sports Writer
Wednesday, February 6, 2019

National signing day arrived on Wednesday and a number of local athletes made decisions on their athletic futures.

A pair of Rocky Mount Academy seniors faxed in their decisions, bringing the total number of college commitments to eight from the Eagles’ senior class, while two Tarboro football players committed to play in college. Elsewhere, a Southern Nash senior signed to play football.

For Tarboro, defensive lineman Melik Ward signed to play football at N.C A&T and classmate and linemate Hunter Medford signed to play at Barton College.
Rocky Mount Academy’s Barrett Eidson signed to play soccer at UNC Asheville, a Division I program. Also for the Eagles, Woodall Rose signed to play baseball at Methodist University, which plays in the USA South Conference with N.C. Wesleyan.
Southern Nash’s Lamont Williams signed to play football at Chowan.

Melik Ward
Ward, who was recruited to play on the Aggies’ defensive line, was a four-year varsity starter for the Vikings who helped the team to win two state championships over the past two seasons. Ward had 69 tackles, five sacks, and a team-high 22 tackles for a loss this past season, anchoring a defense that allowed 62 points over 15 games.

For the rest of the story:
www.rockymounttelegram.com/High-Schools/2019/02/06/National-singing-day-collects-five.html

[Aggie One]

Ex-Williams running back signs with N.C. A&T
By Bob Sutton
Times-News
Posted Feb 6, 2019 at 10:33 AM

Shemar Thompson of Williams High School took a winding path to sign with North Carolina A&T on Wednesday.

The running back who once was committed to East Carolina said he’s back on track after a mis-direction sequence that went awry during his senior season.
“It was a tough time I had to get through,” Thompson said after receiving congratulations from numerous former teammates and coaches at the school.
Thompson didn’t finish the 2018 season with the Bulldogs because of disciplinary reasons he chose not to discuss. “Stuff happened,” he said.
But all those seemed forgotten after he signed paperwork and put on an N.C. A&T cap.

“I wasn’t really sweating it,” Thompson said.“I knew there would be other schools. ... I wasn’t going to give up on it. Maintain my goals and get to college and make something of it.”

For the rest of the story:
www.thetimesnews.com/sports/20190206/ex-williams-running-back-signs-with-nc-at

[Aggie One]

Havelock’s Cam Hutchinson, Nate Willette sign to play college football
By Jordan Honeycutt
Posted Feb 6, 2019 at 11:07 PM

HAVELOCK - It’s a common occurrence that the auditorium at Havelock High School gets use on National Signing Day each year.
The way the Rams turn out talent, they keep the banners and jerseys ready for this occasion each year.

A pair of Rams were the ones that put pen to paper Wednesday as running back Cameron Hutchinson and offensive guard Nate Willett sealed their deals.
Hutchinson, a 6-foot, 205-pounder, is headed to Greensboro to suit up for the North Carolina A&T Aggies next season while Willett (5-9, 235) is head to the same city but a different program as he’ll be a Guilford Quaker.

Wednesday, Hutchinson was able to flash his smile again as the last time he did anything related to football, he left the eastern final versus Jacksonville early due to a knee injury.

News on his knee came back positive as there were no tears and he said he’s on the mend.

“It really means a lot, I’ve been waiting since middle school to have a chance to play college football,” Hutchinson said.
“I wanted to leave on a good note personally but I wasn’t playing for stats, I was playing for my team.”

Hutchinson did put up the stats though as he rushed for 1,218 yards with 22 touchdowns.

He said A&T really got into the picture around January.

“I had been getting some interest from other places and I had a visit to Western Kentucky set up but then they had a coaching change and A&T invited me up there and I just really loved it and felt at home,” he said.

For the rest of the story:
www.havenews.com/sports/20190206/havelocks-cam-hutchinson-nate-willette-sign-to-play-college-football

[codeblu78]

New Aggie: Greene Central's A.J. Dupree signs with N.C. A&T
BY JUNIOUS SMITH III
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2019

SNOW HILL | A.J. Dupree is looking to keep the N.C. A&T name strong in football.

On Wednesday, the Greene Central senior signed his commitment letter to the FCS powerhouse with hopes of helping the Aggies continue its recent success. A&T has won three of the past four Celebration Bowls, four of the past five MEAC conference titles and an undefeated campaign in 2017 with a 12-0 record.

Dupree, who plans to major in engineering, said the school was the right fit.

“I felt at home there,” Dupree said. “The coaching staff was really down to Earth, and I plan on bringing the same mentality that I had here at Greene Central — playing my heart out every game.”


for the rest of the story (note that he's the son of a coach)
www.neusenews.com/index/2019/2/6/new-aggie-greene-centrals-aj-dupree-signs-with-nc-aampt

[SixtiesAggie]

Good overall report.

[Bornthrilla]

[Deleted]

Feb 11, 2019 13:05:45 GMT -5 Bornthrilla said:

We’ve never even ranked on any national rankings before and we landed 4 players on their top 300 list.

BTW we are tied for 3rd most amongst HBCUS on this list with 4. We should’ve had 5 honestly but Prestige got “snubbed.” That would’ve had us tied with Alcorn State. And we could’ve had six but Western Carolina had one helluva recruit cycle.

[numberonebrave]

Erik Walker 6-5 285 OT from Eastern Guilford is #42 on the list going to Hampton