Several area football stars sign on to play at the next level

To view photos from the Opelika-Auburn News Signing Day Luncheon, click here

Wednesday was a day dreams were realized, as several area athletes signed to play football at the next level.

During National Signing Day, 15 athletes signed to play collegiately. Of those, 11 were in attendance at the Opelika-Auburn News for the paper’s second Signing Day Luncheon.

One player in attendance was Auburn High’s Dee Finley, ranked by ESPN.com as the No.1 safety in the nation.

Finley held true to his word and signed a National Letter of Intent to play at Florida.

And, Finley says, he’s ready to prove he can play on the SEC level.

“I want to prove all those people who are doubting me wrong,” Finley said. “I know Florida is the best place for me to go and I’m going to prove it.

“I’ve been hearing about Florida having a safety and signing another great safety — so I guess some people think I’m just suppose to go somewhere else. But my goal is to prove them wrong.”

Finley was named a First-Team All-State safety in 2007 and also participated in the prestigious Under Armour All-Star game.

Another big name to sign Wednesday was Valley’s Johnny Thompson.

Thompson finished his senior year as a First-Team All-State linebacker and the Opelika-Auburn News Defensive Player of the Year.

He also held true to his word and signed on with Troy. And Thompson said he’d like to follow in the footsteps of a pair of former local-product Troy Trojans who are now NFL Pro-Bowlers, Demarcus Ware and Osi Umenyiora.

“I’d like to follow those guys,” Thompson said. “It shocked me that no one looked at those guys out of high school and they went to Troy, accomplished big things and moved on to the NFL.

“I’d like to do be able to do that.”

Auburn High had two other players to sign, Baylor Bennett (Jacksonville State) and Brandon Ross (Memphis).

“It’s real gratifying to me, because it’s the culmination of all the hard work of, not only the players, but the coaches, too,” Auburn High coach Tim Carter said. “This is an opportunity to change their lives. It’s a great opportunity.”

Opelika had just two sign after bringing 10 to last year’s luncheon.

K.R. Snipes is headed to Georgia Southern and Charles Johnson is off to Missouri Southern.

Jacob Geiger was the only Beulah player to sign and he inked his name with Huntingdon in Montgomery.

Kenny Beck was Smiths Station’s only signee, and he finalized his plans to attend Furman.

Lee-Scott also had a single signee, as lineman Aaron Bethune officially signed on with Samford.

Lanett had two players — Lamanski Ware signed with UAB and Jawann Booker signed with Jacksonville State.

Central-Phenix City held its own signing ceremony where four players signed Letters of Intent.

The biggest name from Central was that of D’Antoine Hood, a cornerback who signed with Auburn.

He was joined by Markeith Cliatt (Alabama A&M), Rico Porch (Alabama A&M) and Courtney Mitchell
(Huntingdon).

Glenwood has five expected to sign and will hold a ceremony today at the school. Expected to sign from Glenwood are Branden Williams (Winston-Salem State), Maurice Crawford (Grambling), Bryant Mosely (Alabama State), Cody Pearcy (Huntingdon) and Williams Tanzie (Huntingdon).

Beauregard defensive end Terrell Holcey signed Wednesday with Jacksonville State.

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