Sports Recap: Tigers Sign Up for College

National Signing Day is the culmination of many years of hard work on the field and in the class room for high school football players across the country.

The 2013 DeKalb County signing class totaled 122 signatures and surpassed the century mark for the fourth consecutive year. The previous three years totals were 119 (2010), 120 (2011) and 132 (2012).

Colleges and prep schools from 24 states were represented in the signing class ranging as far west as California, Oregon and Arizona and as far north as Minnesota, New York and Connecticut.

Georgia led all states with 10 colleges/prep schools and 35 athletes staying in state to continue their academic and athletic careers. Kentucky had four colleges with 12 DeKalb athletes signing on in the Bluegrass State while South Carolina had 10 DeKalb athletes signing with six schools from the Palmetto State.

Forty-four of the DeKalb seniors signed with Division I programs (23 FBS, 24 FCS) and will be playing some of the toughest competition in the Pac 12, Big 12, Big 10, ACC and Big East Conferences.

Martin Luther King Jr. High had 21 Lions to sign on Wednesday to lead the DeKalb County schools including a the trio of Demarquis Polite-Bray (WR), JaCarthy Mack (DE) and Joshua Outlaw (OL) joining the Big 12’s Texas Tech University. Teammate Jeremy Tyler (DB) will face off with the trio in the coming seasons as he signed on with West Virginia, the newest member of the Big 12.

Stephenson and Columbia had 19 signees each with Columbia having one senior getting preferred walk-on status at Mississippi State.

Stephenson’s class was led by quarterback Justin Holman (Central Florida), defensive back Ali Groves (South Carolina), defensive lineman Khari Alexander (South Illinois) and defensive end Jonathan Wynn (South Carolina).

Columbia was led by offensive lineman Eric Smith (Virginia), offensive lineman Charles Rutledge (Tennessee Tech) and defensive lineman Mackendy Cheridor (Georgia State).

Cedar Grove was next with 12 signees led by quarterbacks Jonathan McCrary
(Vanderbilt) and Joshua Heard (Yale) and defensive end Daletavious McGhee
(Minnesota).

The Tucker Tigers had 10 sign on the dotted line including quarterback Juwaan Williams (Oregon), offensive lineman Alex Hayes (Syracuse) and defensive Solomon Jackson (Buffalo).

Several signees cast their lot with highly respected academic schools such as Vanderbilt (2), Yale (1), Air Force Academy (1), Purdue (1), Syracuse (1) and Virginia (1) showing the academic excellence coming out of DeKalb County.

Miller Grove (9), Southwest DeKalb (8), Arabia Mountain (7), Chamblee (7), Lithonia (5), Druid Hills (2), McNair (2), and Dunwoody (1) round out the current signing class numbers.

Mark Brock is the Information Officer/Statistician/Web Manager for DeKalb County Schools Athletics