National Signing Day was unusually quiet last week at Selma High School. After years of having multiple football players sign, the Saints have had nobody so far this year, although that could still change in the weeks ahead.

Selma head coach Keon Handley is determined to make sure that doesn’t happen again. He’s taking a group of 23 players to Buford, Georgia this weekend for the Elite Georgia Showcase, a camp where athletes can be seen by collegiate coaches. Handley is taking rising sixth graders through twelfth graders. He said on Saturday they’ll tour Georgia State University and the University of Georgia and on Sunday, the team will take part in the camp.

“They host about 200-300 kids per year in Georgia, and it’s an opportunity for our kids to get evaluated by coaches, but not just coaches, but scouting guys who do the rankings for kids across the country,” Handley said.

The team will also take part in a camp in Birmingham on Feb. 18.

“The more we do this, the more we get seen, the more the kids names get out there and the more exposure we’ll get from the biggest schools,” Handley said.

Parents are helping to pay for food for the meals on the trip, and the Selma band has donated money to help pay for a bus.

Handley said he’s trying to help parents understand that in order to get players to college, they have to start in the ninth grade.

“We need our parents to know and be more active and involved all across the Blackbelt because we have so much talent here in the Blackbelt, but it’s like our kids wait until the twelfth hour and they end up missing out because we aren’t taking advantage of the information that’s out there,” Handley said.

Handley said kids aren’t going to be able to fix their GPA their last two years in school. They need to stay on top of it throughout high school, so if they get an opportunity athletically or academically, they can take advantage of it.

“Their GPA is with them from ninth [grade] all the way through,” he said.