Colleges from all over the southeast will likely have their eyes on Selma High School on National Signing Day, which is less than four weeks away.

The Saints are expected to have five players sign with NCAA Division I or Division II schools on national signing day, but at this point none of them have determined where they want to attend college. Selma football coach Leroy Miles said it’s likely many of the players won’t tell where they are going until they put on that school’s ball cap on signing day.

“They probably will [have hats],” Miles said. “I was telling [Patrick] Evans, our athletic director, that we should do something big and let the school be a part of it. That may encourage other kids to want to be a part of that kind of activity.”

Last year four players from Selma signed scholarships, but this year’s haul will be the biggest Miles has seen in 20 years of living in Selma.

“It’s really been like a tornado with different coaches coming at you every day,” Miles said.

The coach is confident all five players will qualify academically to play football at the next level.

Signing day is Feb. 4.

Below is an update on all of the players at Selma High School being recruited:

 

Jesse Boggs

Boggs tore his ACL early in Selma’s season, but it hasn’t cooled off the schools recruiting him. Miles said he receives calls from schools regularly asking how Boggs is recovering from the injury, and he’s only had good news to share.

“He’s making a remarkable recovery,” Miles said. “He has started running, going through some intense rehab and is already starting to toss the ball around a little bit on Sundays.”

The senior mainly played quarterback during his career with the Saints, but Middle Tennessee, the first school to offer him, wants him as a wide receiver.

South Alabama and West Alabama have also offered Boggs, with the plan of making him a quarterback.

Miles said the decision on what position Boggs wants to play will probably affect which school he ultimately chooses.

“I think in conversations with Jesse that he wants to play quarterback,” Miles said. “Sometimes kids get locked into that and they make decisions based on what they play. It’s his decision to make.”

 

Kendarious Merchant

Kendarious Merchant is the newest player to earn a scholarship offer for the Saints. The senior running back recently received an offer from Stillman College and is also being recruited hard by West Alabama, Miles said.

Merchant is taking a visit to West Alabama Thursday.

“[Colleges] like the way he presses the hole and he’s a hard runner,” Miles said. “He’s fast, compact and has real strong legs.”

 

La’chavious Simmons

At 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds, colleges have been lining up to talk to Selma’s La’Chavious Simmons.

The offensive and defensive lineman has offers from West Alabama, Tennessee State, Alabama A&M, Samford and Alabama State. Miles said every school that has offered him wants him to play offensive line.

Southern Mississippi is yet to offer Simmons, but has recruited him and likes his ability to play on the defensive line, Miles said.

 

Ernest Gunn

Ernest Gunn and Malcolm Conn found themselves in a unique situation during the spring. Both were seniors at Selma High School, but under Alabama High School Athletic Association rules, both would have been too old to play in Alabama during their final year.

The rules state that a player is ineligible to play if they turn 19 before Aug. 1, and both players had birthdays before that date.

Without a way to allow Conn and Gunn to play at Selma, Miles reached out to Daryl Pearson, who coached at Selma over a decade ago, at Northview High School in Duluth, Ga.

The rule in Georgia is different, as players are eligible as long as they don’t turn 19 before May 1 of the preceding school year.

“Both of the kids had scholarship offers as juniors, so I thought it was important that they play their senior year somewhere,” Miles said.

Northview accepted both players, who took part in the season, and performed well. Gunn was named to the Atlanta Journal Constitutional’s all-area football team for the North Fulton area.

Gunn has been offered by Alabama A&M, Southern Mississippi, Valdosta State, Savannah State, Samford and Lenor Rhyne in North Carolina.

“Ernest is taking all visits and I encouraged him to be respectful and don’t look down on anybody, because you never know which bridge you may have to cross back over,” Miles said. “He’s giving everybody a legitimate shot to recruit him. I think Southern Mississippi is in the lead, the high profile school that they are. Where he is going to go is up to him and his mom and his family.”

 

Malcolm Conn

Like Gunn, linebacker Malcolm Conn played his final year at Northview High School in Georgia but has now returned to Selma.

Conn, a linebacker, has offers from South Alabama, Georgia Southern, Northern Illinois, West Alabama and Savannah State.

“Malcolm was the top recruit at our school and I think a lot of schools backed off of him because they didn’t think they could get him,” Miles said. “… Now that people see he hasn’t made a decision, some people may start to come back in here late.”

 

Others

Wide receiver Cyron Ellis has been offered by Huntingdon College and Miles believes Rashawn Reeves and Michael Griffin will sign with junior colleges.

Junior linebacker Aderick Moore is just starting to get his recruiting underway, but already has an offer from Georgia Southern. Miles said Moore is also driving heavy interest from Mississippi State.