Wayne Grandy
MOULTRIE — Twelve members of the Colquitt County High football team on Wednesday signed to receive football scholarships worth $738,000.
Eleven of the 12 — Chris Walsh, Quin Roberson, William McCrary, Willie McCrary, Davis Durham, Cameron Erving, Tyrell Wright, Tyler Dismuke, Derrell Ward, Ashley Mead and Amel Magwood signed at a ceremony at the Colquitt County High cafeteria attended by parents and other family members, assistant coaches, other members of the football team and other students.
Nyneson Jeudy signed Wednesday afternoon at home.
Erving, an All-State defensive tackle, signed to play with at Florida State.
Roberson, the Packers other All-State player, is heading to Samford, where he will play wide receiver for former Heisman Trophy winner and Atlanta Falcons quarterback Pat Sulllivan.
Cornerback Amel Magwood, long snapper Ashley Mead, free safety Davis Durham and punter/place-kicker Tyler Dismuke are heading to Valdosta State.
Ward, a cornerback, signed with Tuskegee; Wright, a defensive end, with West Georgia; Walsh, an offensive tackle, with St. Augustine’s in Raleigh, N.C.; the McCrary twins with Georgia Military; and Jeudy, a defensive tackle, with Kilgore College in Kilgore, Texas.
“This day is as important to me as the season,” said Packers coach Rush Propst after the players signed their letters of intent.
Propst said the scholarships were not only a testament to the players’ hard work, but also to the support of the school administration, teachers, assistant coaches and other members of the community.
The Packers second-year coach, who led the team to an 11-3 record last fall, reiterated that the players receiving scholarships still had to graduate from high school.
“This has been a process and it’s the culmination of a lot of hard work,” Propst told the players. “But you still have got to do your work in the classroom.”
Propst said he hoped the success of the 12 players would serve as an incentive to younger players throughout the community.
“It can give them hope that some day they could be sitting up there,” he said. “It could echo all the way down to first grade.”
The McCrary twins moved to Colquitt County before their senior season from Daphne, Ala., but the rest of the players who signed have played together since they were in seventh grade.
And they never played on a winning team until this year.
As seventh-graders, their team went 0-6. They next year they were 1-5 before playing on a team that lost all eight of its games when they were freshmen.
As sophomores, they were 2-8 and as juniors were 4-6.
But after going 7-33 over their first five years in the program, the seniors helped lead the Packers improbable run to the state semifinals last fall.
Roberson caught 58 passes and scored 20 touchdowns last season and is Colquitt County’s all-time leading receiver with 100 catches.
He was named Region 1-AAAAA’s Offensive Player of the Year and was named to the All-State team.
Samford was 5-6 last year and will open the 2010 season on Sept. 4 with a trip to Tallahassee for a non-Southern Conference game against Florida State, where Roberson is likely to run into Erving, his former Packer teammate.
Erving never wavered in his long commitment to Florida State and will head to Tallahassee this summer to play for new Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher.
The 6-foot-5, 280-pound Erving was second on the team in tackles and was named both All-Region and All-State.
The McCrary twins helped turn a defense that had been porous the two previous years into one of the best in Region 1-AAAAA.
Willie led the Packers with 101 tackles and his 95-yard return of an interception of a Hutson Mason pass helped propel the Packers to a victory over previously unbeaten Lassiter in the quarterfinals.
William had a big interception for a touchdown in the playoffs as well, taking his back 20 yards for a score in the upset of Stephenson in the second round.
The two will get a chance to work on both academics and their football skills at Georgia Military College.
Packers secondary coach Dextra Polite played two seasons for the Bulldogs before going on to an All-SEC career at Clemson in the late 1990s.
Ward had an outstanding season at cornerback for the Packers, intercepting five passes and taking one back for a touchdown against Lassiter in the playoffs.
He is heading to an outstanding football program at Tuskegee, which has won 10 or more games each of the last six seasons. Golden Tigers head coach Willie Slater is 42-5 in his four years as the team’s head coach.
Several Packers have excelled at Tuskegee over the years, including quarterback Terrence Jones and offensive lineman Charlie Thornton, who were All-Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference selections in 2002.
Wright was listed as a 6-foot-2, 230 pound linebacker in the information released by West Georgia about its 2009 signees.
The Wolves were just 1-9 overall and 1-7 in the Gulf South Conference last season, but are rebuilding under head coach Darryl Dickey, the former Florida State quarterbacks coach.
Also included in the Wolves recruiting class is another Wright — offensive lineman William Wright from Coconut Creek, Fla. — and another Tyrell — Tyrell Adams a strong safety from Mays High in Atlanta.
And when the Wolves meet Valdosta State in GSC games, Wright is likely to see four former teammates — Dismuke, Mead, Durham and Magwood — on the opposite sideline.
Dismuke had an outstanding senior season kicking the football for the Packers, often sending his kickoffs into the end zone and averaging 37.2 yards on his 40 punts. He also kicked four field goals.
Magwood, who began his Packers career as a wide receiver, led the Packers in interceptions with eight.
Four of those came in the second half when the Packers beat Valdosta 14-7 at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.
Mead was the Packers long snapper the last two years and was near-perfect in his job of getting ball back to Dismuke, the punter, and Durham, the holder.
And while steady as the Packers holder, Durham also solid in the secondary the last two seasons.
Last fall, he had two interceptions and was third on the team in tackles with 87.
Walsh was a two-year starter on the offensive line for the Packers and performed well last season, playing through injuries.
The 300-pounder will head for Raleigh, N.C., where Saint Augustine’s Falcons play in the Division II Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Jeudy who was third on the team in tackles from his defensive line position, is heading to a strong junior college program at Kilgore College.
The Rangers sent 14 players on their 2009 roster on to four-year schools, including tight end Chase Ford who signed with Miami.
Also on Wednesday, former Packer defensive back Dontrell Johnson, who played the last two seasons at Garden City Community College in Kansas, signed with Murray State in Kentucky.
The Racers new head coach is Chris Hatcher, the former Valdosta State and Georgia Southern head coach.
