Fork Union, Virginia - February 4, 2009 - Shortly before 8am, the cadets and family members begin filling the lobby of the Estes Athletic Center on the campus of Fork Union Military Academy. On the wall in front of them are the large bronze plaques and crystal trophy honoring the members of FUMA's Sports Hall of Fame, featuring familiar faces and names like Eddie George, Don Majkowski, Sonny Randle. Generations of FUMA athletes have gone on to outstanding college and even professional sports careers. These cadets are taking their first steps to follow in their footsteps.
 
It is National Signing Day and these FUMA cadets are preparing to formally accept college scholarship offers to play football at the next level. As usual, there are a lot of them. Today more than three dozen football players from FUMA will sign National Letters of Intent committing to a major college or university.
 
Two seniors from Coach Micky Sullivan's prep football program are among those receiving Division I scholarships this year. Skyler Allen and Jamil Shaw join an elite list of FUMA cadets like NFL pros Eddie George, Chris Perry, and current Oklahoma receiver Brandon Caleb who have come up through FUMA's high school ranks to earn college scholarships. Allen and Shaw join postgraduate player Jelani Woseley this morning in committing to play for Ohio University in the fall. The Ohio University Bobcats already feature a FUMA alumnus, junior Chris Garrett (FUMA '06) in their starting lineup.
 
Virginia Tech picked up four players from FUMA, and all of them have enrolled already in their college program. DJ Coles and Tony Gregory were signed to scholarships, and Adam Dyer and Daniel Overstreet have accepted opportunities to walk on to the Hokies. In other Virginia college signings, Brandon Carr and Alex Johnson committed to Old Dominion University. James Madison University was chosen by Jonathan Sharp, and Jordan Rigby accepted a walk on opportunity at Virginia State University. Brentley Vinson joined the Liberty University Eagles. The University of Virginia signed no FUMA players this year.
 
Coach John Shuman notes that "This is just the beginning, we'll keep working to place our players in college programs right up through the summer." Coach Shuman says his goal is to have at least half of his fifty players signed to college by National Signing Day. With at least 35 of his players already having received scholarship offers, and about 32 of those making commitments today, he seems to be a bit ahead of that schedule this year.