Demopolis has five players sign football scholarships
Demopolis High School saw five of its senior football players sign scholarship offers Wednesday morning as National Signing Day opened.
Highlighting that group was a trio of Atlantic Coast Conference signees.
Defensive end Tyler Merriweather is headed to Georgia Tech while wide receiver Cortez Lewis and safety Demetrius Kemp inked National Letters of Intent to Wake Forest.
“It is mainly just the engineering program, the opportunities that Tech presents to me and the football program too,” the 6-3, 230-pound Merriweather said. “I’ve said I want to be an engineer and they give me the opportunity to be one and play Division I football.”
Merriweather, who verbally committed to the Yellow Jackets last summer, has visited the campus four times and selected the Ramblin’ Wreck over Wake Forest, Western Kentucky and some 20 other offers. Merriweather was an honorable mention All-State selection in 2013 as well as a West Alabama Watchman All-County performer.
Lewis verbally committed to Northern Illinois in the spring and has since had heavy flirtations with other schools such as Minnesota in the months since. The 6-2, 200-pound wide receiver moved his verbal commitment to the Demon Deacons just days before the departure of former coach Jim Grobe and his staff.
“With the offense they are running, they’re throwing the ball and that is an offense I want to be a part of,” Lewis said of Wake, whose coaching staff now includes former Citadel head coach Kevin Higgins, who heavily recruited Lewis last summer. “That really was a big part of my decision. Me and him built a relationship and it really and truly felt like he can help me out a lot at Wake Forest.”
Lewis, who caught 29 passes for 575 yards and six touchdowns in a run-heavy Tiger offense, was a West Alabama Watchman All-County selection in 2013.
Kemp had the option of playing wide receiver or safety in college as he was recruited on both sides of the ball by more than 30 schools including Southern Mississippi, Minnesota and Purdue.
“I feel pretty good. It didn’t really matter to me which side of the ball I play. I just wanted to play at the next level,” Kemp, who caught three passes for 72 yards and two touchdowns in December’s Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game, said. “I just felt really comfortable about Wake and what those coaches were doing.”
Kemp verbally committed to Wake at the same time as Lewis, just days before a coaching upheaval.
“It just took time for me to get up there and go on an official, meet with those new coaches and see how those guys were and see how the players felt about the new coaches,” Kemp said. “Everybody was pretty excited about the new coaches and felt pretty excited about what was going to happen next year.”
Kemp was an honorable mention All-State player in 2013 as well as a West Alabama Watchman All-County performer, an ESPN 104.9 Super 11 selection and a Tuscaloosa News Super 11 pick.
Demopolis also saw two players sign with Division II schools Wednesday as defensive lineman Hollis Bright signed to play with the University of West Alabama and linebacker Peyton Pearson inked an offer from Mississippi College.
“I thought it was a pretty good opportunity for me to go on to the next level and play football. I kind of knew coming down the road that I might end up getting a small offer from a junior college or somewhere like that,” Bright said of the recruiting process. “But Coach (Tom) Causey put in my head to not give up or anything like that on my opportunity. So I stayed patient. UWA came through first and then Miles.”
Bright opted for West Alabama over Miles in part because of how the Tigers plan to utilize him.
“They’re telling me that I might change my position a little bit. Another thing that made me want to go to UWA was they gave me more options as a player than Miles did,” Bright said. “Miles wanted to use me as only (a nose guard). But UWA told me that if I come in, I work hard, I get a little more muscular, I get a little thinner, then I can also play the three technique and sometimes I can slide to the end and I’m really liking that.”
Pearson chose Mississippi College over an offer from UWA. The inside linebacker will become part of a Choctaw team that is transitioning into NCAA Division II and will be joining the Gulf South Conference.
“It felt right the whole time. This place is close to home. It’s peaceful. It’s clean,” Pearson said. “It really felt good. As much as they were offering, it really made me feel pretty special. The coaches there, as soon as I walked in, they knew me by name. I didn’t have to really introduce myself to any of the coaches. They were just real friendly. They seemed like a good group of guys.”
Pearson led his team in tackles in 2013 and was a West Alabama Watchman All-County selection.
The school will honor the players at a ceremony at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Demopolis High School Auditorium. The players will be part of the ESPN 104.9 Coaches Show Signing Day Special at Batter Up Sports Grill from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Wednesday.