The growth in the Columbus High School football team continues.
Buoyed by the signing of Kylin Hill (Mississippi State) and Tahj Sykes (Southern Mississippi) to Division I scholarship offers, coach Randal Montgomery’s Falcons sent seven players to college as part of a National Signing Day ceremony in the school’s library Wednesday morning.
In front of a packed audience, Kendre Conner, C.J. Gholar, and LaQuinston Sharp (East Mississippi Community College), Chris Blair Jr. (Hinds C.C.), and Derrick Beckom Jr. (Mississippi Gulf Coast C.C.) also signed to continue their football careers.
All of the players had key roles in transforming Columbus from a program that went 4-7 in Montgomery’s first season as head coach at the school in 2014 into one that won 14 games and advanced to the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 6A playoffs the last two seasons. It was the first time since the turn of the century the Falcons made the postseason in back-to-back years.
“It has been a blessing to watch these young men grow on and off the football field for the last three years,” Montgomery said. “It is a great group of guys. They are good friends on and off the field, and I am excited to watch them grow over the next four years.”
Hill, the state’s consensus No. 2 running back by multiple recruiting services, rushed for 1,750 yards and had 27 touchdowns this past season to help the Falcons go 6-6. Hill was named The Dispatch’s Large Schools Offensive Player of the Year for a second-straight season. He shared the award with West Point High’s Marcus Murphy this past season. As a junior, Hill rushed for 1,801 yards.
Hill came dressed for success in a maroon blazer he bought from The Suit Case, a men’s clothing store in Columbus. Several other notable signees from the area, including former Noxubee County High standout Jeffery Simmons, who went to MSU, have purchased clothing to wear for National Signing Day, from The Suit Case. Hill said his blazer, which went with gray slacks, was a suede-like material.
“It was a good experience,” Hill said of his signing. “I have been waiting on this moment and it finally came. I am still shocked about it.”
Hill said he was “shocked” about the day because few people see the hard work student-athletes put in to realize dreams like the ones he and his teammates realized Wednesday. He said he was thankful that all of the hours of summer practice and work in the in the weight room finally paid off.
Hill said it was special to celebrate the day with so many teammates he has played with since pee wee football. He thanked Montgomery and the rest of the coaching staff for working with all of them to help them realize their goals and to push the football program in the right direction.
“Coach Montgomery changed a lot for this program,” Hill said. “Not only is he a great coach, but he also is one of the best mentors a player can have on the team. He always kept it real with you.”
Hill said he is eager to get started and will work hard to stay in shape so he is ready in the summer when he has to report to MSU. He said he received a text message from Starkville High’s Willie Gay on Wednesday morning shortly after Gay signed with MSU. Hill and Gay are part of a class that earned coach Dan Mullen a top-25 national ranking.
“I told him it is time to turn it up,” Hill said, when asked what he texted back to Gay. “I know it is going to be a way different environment (at MSU) and that it is going to be harder. If I just stick to my plan and keep going hard I think I will be able to compete for a spot that is up for the taking.”
Sykes, a 6-foot-3, 268-pound defensive lineman, echoed Hill’s thoughts about the development of the football program in the last three seasons. He said playing with Montgomery has been “the best three years of my life.”
Sykes can credit Montgomery for getting a chance to play at Southern Miss. He said Montgomery called him to encourage him to attend a camp at Southern Miss. Sykes said he was thinking about staying at home and “chilling or relaxing” or going to the Southern Miss camp when Montgomery called. Thinking back, he said he was “real blessed” he decided to attend the camp because there is no telling what would have happened if he didn’t go.
As it turned out, Sykes made an immediate impression. He said he received a scholarship offer about 20 minutes after leaving the camp.
“I was just real excited and I started calling everybody, my head coach, my defensive line coach, and my dad,” Sykes said. “I was really excited to get an opportunity to play Division I ball.”
Sykes feels his strength and versatility — he played nose guard, defensive tackle, and defensive end — helped him attract attention. He said his ability to use his hands to get an advantage on offensive linemen as well as his motor also came through at the camp. Sykes said he put the complete package on display this past season to prove he was ready to the coaches at Southern Miss.
Sharp, Gholar, and Conner will bring a diverse group of skills to Scooba.
Sharp, who played guard for the Falcons, said he first looked at Mississippi Gulf Coast C.C. before he received interest from EMCC. He said he felt like EMCC was the best place for him in part because he believes he can make a positive impact on the offense line and use his time there to get to the next level.
“I didn’t think I was going to be that good on the line, but they put me in there and (offensive line coach Tobias Smith, a former player at MSU) made me feel I can be an offensive lineman and be real consistent and good at it,” Sharp said. “I worked hard to do my thing at the position.”
Sharp said he developed confidence after talking to Smith. He said he knew he could trust Smith and that he would teach him all of the steps to learn the position and that he would be able to what he learned at the next level. Sharp said his aggressiveness increased as his confidence grew.
“It is all about believing in myself,” Sharp said. “(Coach Smith) said I can be the one who makes it to the top. I am going to use that as motivation and as a source of confidence.”
Confidence also has been a key ingredient to Conner’s maturation. The running back turned fullback earned the nickname “Bull” from Columbus Middle School football coach Lee Davis. Ever since then, Conner has been charging toward a goal he believed he could attain. He acknowledges there have been bumps in the road and some who doubted whether he would be able to achieve his dream, but he said he stayed strong because he draws inspiration from his mother, Calandra Lashley.
“I had to learn you have to show God you appreciate your gift,” Conner said. “My mom is a single parent, and she raised me, my brother, my sister, and my older sister and her daughter. Sometimes when I let her down I don’t feel the same, but she is a die hard football freak. I just know for her to see me do something like (today) that makes her feel good.”
Conner hopes to use his time at EMCC to earn a chance to continue his football career at LSU. He knows from watching the Netflix documentary “Last Chance U” that there have been a lot of former Lions who parlayed their time in Scooba into big-time Division I offers. He hopes he can use the confidence he gained as a running back the last few years to keep him moving forward.
“I had to learn you have to go through hard times,” Conner said. “As I got older, I had to learn about myself. … That made me better as a person. I had to get that right first.”
Like Sykes, a camp experience played a key role in Gholar earning a chance to play at the next level. Even though he played quarterback at Columbus High the last three years, he said his decision to attend a wideout camp at EMCC the summer prior to his senior year helped him believe Scooba was the best fit for him. Winning the award for the best skilled player in the camp provided the boost of confidence Gholar needed to realize he had to stay the course and good things were going to happen.
Gholar kept that mind-set when he returned to Columbus High and went back to playing quarterback. In the back of his mind, though, he knew his future was going to be at receiver, but he kept his focus and tried his best to help the team win.
“When it comes down to receiver, my point of view is I am the best one out there,” said Gholar, who last played receiver as a sophomore at Columbus High. “When I am at that position I am at my best and I am comfortable how to get off the ball and how to make cuts and run the right routes. I figure that was what they were looking for and I just gave it my best.
“It is a huge honor to know the coaches have a lot of trust in me and believe I am a leader and that I can produce when I get there. It is not going to be too big for me. I am going to perfect my craft and hopefully continue winning.”
Beckom Jr. will bring the same level of confidence to Perkinston, where he hopes to contribute to one of the state’s most successful junior college football programs. He said he found the right fit at Mississippi Gulf Coast C.C. in part because the team runs a 3-3-5 defense. Beckom Jr. said the coaches have told him he likely will play strong safety and or be a “nickel type of guy.” He played safety for three years at Columbus High.
Beckom Jr. said his leadership skills and his football IQ helped him realize his goal.
“I was pretty confident about today,” Beckom Jr. said. “For the past few years, I feel I have been a leader on the team. I had to grow into that, but it pretty much has been expected of me since I started my 10th-grade year when I was thrown into that role to be that guy. They saw that in me and I didn’t want to let the coaches down.”
This is the second-straight year Columbus High has had seven sign on National Signing Day. That is a marked improvement from 2015, when Alexander Lipscomb and Joshua Hibbler (EMCC) were the Falcons’ lone signees.
Montgomery credits his assistant coaches for their work in helping develop players. He hopes all of the Falcons coming up see the hard work and time the seniors put in to realize their goals of getting to the next level.
“These guys have really worked hard,” Montgomery said. “They have done everything we have asked them to do. They have worked really hard in the weight room. They have worked really hard just growing into an overall football player. They have done some special things for us, and I see no reason that is going to change moving forward.
“These seven guys are phenomenal football players. We have some big shoes to fill. If the kids coming up can see days like this, it will motivate them more to get to this point.”
Blair Jr. couldn’t be reached Wednesday night for comment.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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