There wasn’t a dry eye in the house and that’s not including the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends that gathered in the Jefferson High School Media Center to watch the Dragons ink 6 guys to play at the next level on Wednesday morning.

Juwuan Coffee got things started by announcing his intentions to play for D-III Becker College in Boston, Massachusetts along with teammate Lamar Woods (6-0, 205) who played LB for Jefferson this season. WR Adrian Jenkins then stood up and announced his declaration to sign on the dotted line to play at Florida International this fall while the man sitting to his right (Mr. Tyriq McCord) looked on and announced shortly after by simply putting his hands together to make the symbol of “The U”.

McCord was followed by CB Will Watson who is going to play in the Mid-American Conference at Bowling Green State University. The 6-0, 190 Senior understands that playing on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s (albeit somewhat unconventional) played a major factor in committing to the school in Northwest Ohio. Watson also knows that their main rival has three guys from Hillsborough County (Chris Murray, Greg Windham and Daz Patterson) to contend with who are playing at Ohio University.

“I told them I can’t let them get the best of me. It’s time to shut them down.” Watson said with a laugh. 6-3, 210lb DE/OL David White signed with Florida A&M rounding out the six that were front and center in front of the packed house. Every single player was emotional (some even broke down) and all referenced their coaches, teammates and specifically the J-Boys Community that is as strong a bond as any school has.

Head Coach Jeremy Earle was quite clear that these young men were merely reflections of the overall bigger picture in Carver City. “The goal of Jefferson High School Football is to do more than turn them into good football players. It’s to also turn them into productive members of society and to understand the principles of what it takes to be a leader in this world.”