Bringing in the new year means bringing in new talent. Coach Connell Maynor and the nine coaches on his staff are looking to add to the abundance of talent the Rams have.
That brings the Rams to Signing Day.
National Signing Day was Feb. 2 for schools across the country. Talented high school recruits make the decision to sign a letter of intent to play football for the college of their desire.
Recruiting high school prospects requires a lot of time put in by the coaches. The coaching staff travels across the country to find players that will fit their system.
According to Coach Maynor, this year’s class is looking pretty solid so far. This is a good thing for the Rams, as the signing date extends for Division II teams. Since Winston-Salem State has re-entered Division II, Rams football will be receiving signees as the month’s progress. Not all recruits sign on the National Signing Day in Division II, compared to Division I when many top prospects sign on the dotted line.
“It is always tough when it comes to recruiting,” Maynor said.
Family backgrounds and the successfulness of the visit are some of the factors when it comes to signing players.
The recruiting process is a competition between the coaches to get the best football players in the country to join at their respective schools. Since most of the schools in the CIAA are based in the Southeast, WSSU has to compete with several other schools to get the top players in the region.
The Rams may be a young and talented team, but they are still looking to replace 12 seniors, seven on defense and five on offense. They are aware of the departure of All-CIAA first team players Travis Taylor and Juan Corders and are working to fill their critical positions. However, with CIAA first team participant Nic Cooper, second team participant Alton Keaton and the CIAA rookie of the year Tehvyn Brantley returning, the Rams should be a heavy favorite in the conference.
“It is always difficult to replace players especially ones like Juan Corders and Shawn Kearney,” Maynor said.
Some of the key returning players for the Rams are quarterback Kameron Smith, wide receiver Dominique Fitzgerald and linebacker Khendra Reid.
“We will probably be leaning more on the offense because of the returning starters,” Maynor said.
The Rams were only a few plays away from getting a chance to play for their first CIAA title in 10 years, finishing 8-2 (5-2).