Monday marked the beginning of the next chapter for a number of high school seniors, as Wallace Community College-Selma welcomed new student athletes into its family.

Wallace Community College-Selma held its signing day ceremony at the school’s gym Monday, as 30 total high school seniors signed scholarships for men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball.

Marcus Hannah, athletic director for Wallace, said credit goes to the coaching staffs of the three programs for bringing in such an outstanding class of student athletes.

“It is an honor to bring in so many athletes. We signed over 27 athletes and it just shows a testament to our coaching staff and what they’re doing,” Hannah said. “Our women’s basketball team is greatly improved, having won the Southern Conference championship and gone to the final four this year. Our men’s basketball team was fourth in the conference this year, our women’s volleyball team for the first time in history made it to the playoffs and won two games during those playoffs. So I give all credit to our coaching staff here. They’ve done an outstanding job.”

Women’s volleyball and basketball coach April Harper said Monday was great not only from an athletic program perspective, but also from an academic perspective.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity, first of all, to recruit girls within the surrounding area and to be able to provide a quality scholarship for them here at Wallace, because academics come first and because academics take care of athletics,” Harper said. “Ninety-nine percent of our athletes graduate, and a lot of our athletes graduate with honors and transition on to other colleges and are able to do great things.”

This class represents the first for new men’s basketball coach Foster Davis and he said it will help him in building up the program.

“It’s a new day for me, retiring from the Selma school system and starting a new chapter, and we’ve got a great freshman class coming in,” Davis said. “We’ve got some great boys returning. We’re going to try to put this program on the map. Right now, I’m trying to build. I’m going to try to the best of my abilities to build it and make everyone proud.”

Women’s basketball had 10 signees including Jonishia Jackson of Selma High School, Jameneshia Caver of Selma, Takeela Mixon of Dallas County, Ebony Childers of Maplesville, Alfondria Brown of Sumter Central, Alnecia Abraham of R.C. Hatch, Khadjah Bates of Francis Marion, Dontrelle Peterson of Akron, Chaland Pettus of Selma, Kadijah Small of Akron.

Women’s volleyball had seven signees including Khadijdra Fail of Southside High School in Selma, Elizabeth Hayden of Jemison, Iauren Locke of Montevallo High School, Ileen Marsh of Houston High School in Warner Robins, Ga., Jasmine Robinson of Akron, Raven Fields of Akron and Tori Robinson of Akron.

Men’s basketball had 13 signees including Kerry Mitchell of Selma High School, Patrick Jackson of Fairfield, Fredrick Turner of Wilcox-Central High School, Bilal Richardson of Stone Mountain, Edward Bester of Akron, Rafael Mickel of Central Hayneville, Garrison Webb of Stone Mountain, Perry Rudolph of Central Hayneville, Wenell Snow of Central Hayneville, Taknia Askew of R.C. Hatch, Forrest Pasley of Keith, Darrel Strozier of Stone Mountain, and Harold Scott Jr. of Demopolis.