DeKalb football players ink triple-digit scholarships

 

DeKalb football scholarship signees hit their highest point since 2014 as 101 seniors found a home to continue their education and football careers in the fall as part of the class of 2026. 

The 101 signees mark an increase of 42 from last year’s 59, which was the third lowest in the last 20 seasons. DeKalb had a low of 53 in 2007 and 56 in 2022. 

The 2026 class matched DeKalb’s 2014 signing class but was 19 signees short of setting the third-highest record held by the 2010 signing class, which inked 119 players signing the dotted line. DeKalb followed up with 109 in 2011 and the current record of 132 in 2012. The 2013 class moved into the second spot with 122. 

This year’s class features 10 Division-1 Football Bowl Series (FBS) signees, including Southeastern Conference schools such as Arkansas signing Lithonia’s Zae’Quan Jackson and Mississippi State signing Lithonia’s Tico Crittendon. Southwest DeKalb’s Earnest Rankins Jr. will head to Florida State in the Atlantic Coastal Conference along with Marist’s Jack Richerson committing to Georgia Tech.  

Ten more DeKalb athletes went Division 1 in Football Championship Series (FCS), including two to Bethune Cookman (Stephenson’s Shane Moore and Cedar Grove’s Dexter Mincey) and two to South Carolina State University (Columbia’s Antonio Whiters and Stephenson’s Emari Green). 

Signees have found homes at 16 Division II schools (32), six Division III colleges (six), 10 NAIA colleges (29), three junior colleges (six), and one NCCAA college. 

DeKalb has two student athletes headed to high-profile academic schools as Lithonia’s Braylon Jackson (linebacker) chose the Air Force Academy, and Arabia Mountain’s Joshua Owens (defensive back) heads to the Ivy League to play at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Lithonia put forth the largest signing class with 20 players moving on to the next level; followed by Columbia with 13; and Martin Luther King Jr., Miller Grove, and Southwest DeKalb with 10 signees each.  

Among non-DeKalb County School District schools, St. Pius X Catholic had five players ink scholarships, followed by Decatur High School with three, and Marist had two players to dot the line.  

Lithonia’s class was the largest in DeKalb since Stephenson’s 25 signees in 2012. Miller Grove’s signing class of 10 players was the most in school history. 

Seventeen of the 22 high schools participating in football had at least one player sign in this class with several schools continuing long streaks of players signing. 

Southwest DeKalb’s 10 signees this spring extended the school’s streak to 43 consecutive seasons, dating back to 1984. Cedar Grove made it 38 consecutive seasons with its three signees this year which dates to 1989. Other streaks over 20 include Stephenson’s 29-year run (1998), Tucker’s streak of 26 years (2001), Columbia’s 23 consecutive years (2004) and Lithonia’s 22 seasons in a row (2005). Arabia Mountain has a streak of 16 seasons, with a signee every year since 2009, which was just the third season of football at DeKalb’s newest school. 

Towers broke a seven-year drought with two signees in the 2026 class with Javonta Callaway (Miles College) and Corinthius Collins (Brevard College). Clarkston’s AmunRa Lee (Carleton College) and Shak Shukuru (Luther College) gave the school its first signees since 2023 and the most since 2006 (10). 

Sixty-eight schools from 24 states grabbed the 101 DeKalb student athletes this year. Athletes are going as far away as Colorado, Delaware, and Minnesota to continue their careers. 

 The Champion Reporter Reginald Fuller contributed to this article.