St. James has three athletes sign

By TIM GAYLE

Bradley Thomas earned honors as the Capital City Conference player of the year in basketball and always considered himself a basketball player first, which sort of made his signing ceremony at St. James on Friday a little surprising.

There was Thomas, the basketball player, speaking at a signing ceremony about his football scholarship to Alabama State University. 

“I didn’t see it happening,” he admitted, “but as I continued playing football, my love for the game really grew. I didn’t expect it to grow that much. After playing this year, I was like, ‘I have to keep playing.’ I love basketball, too, that will always be there, but I really love football.”

Thomas, football teammate Jonathan Harris and volleyball and basketball player Danielle Greene were honored at a signing ceremony on Friday morning at the school as each accepted offers to continue playing at the collegiate level.

For Thomas, the ceremony had to have special meaning for his father Kurt, a standout defensive lineman at Robert E. Lee in the early 1980s. 

“Even though he was supporting me during basketball, this really makes his heart,” Thomas said.

Despite a coaching change at Alabama State, assistant coach Billy Gresham never gave up on recruiting Thomas to play for the Hornets. 

“I really like what they’re trying to build,” Thomas said. “It’s a nice setting over there. It’s a great program and I just feel like I fit there.”

Head coach Jimmy Perry praised his basketball-turned-football player.

“He’s a fierce player,” Perry said. “He’s only played football for two years. I’ve never seen a young man come out there and try to improve his craft any harder than Bradley Thomas. And it’s paid off.”

While Thomas signed with ASU, Harris signed with rival Tuskegee, a fact that didn’t wasn’t lost on the two defensive backs. 

“We’ve most definitely talked about it,” Thomas said. “We’ve joked here and there. It should be fun.”

“We’ve talked about that a lot,” Harris said. “We’ve trained together so we know each other’s moves.”

Harris, who packs a lot of athletic ability into an undersized (5-foot-7) frame, is already hard at work on perfecting his craft for the collegiate level.

“Just my technique,” he said. “I can only get so big, so my whole focus is working on my technique and getting better skill-wise.”

Perry said Harris’ biggest asset is his work ethic.

“He is the perfect coach’s dream,” Perry said of his three-year starter. “He’ll play any position you ask him to play. He played defensive back for us, he played running back for us, he played on every one of our special teams. Jonathan gives his all on every snap.”

Greene, who excels both as a forward in basketball and as a mid blocker in volleyball, accepted an offer to play volleyball at Birmingham Southern. 

“It’s really a blessing,” she said, “because not everybody gets to do it. Volleyball has always been my thing. I started playing it first. I’ve always taken it more seriously than basketball.”

She also took her recruiting seriously, reaching out to college coaches and inviting them to watch her play, which earned her an offer from the Birmingham private school. 

“I was at a tournament and I was emailing a bunch of coaches, asking them to come watch,” she said. “After that, we just kept in contact. I really liked it.”

Volleyball coach Karen Lee said Greene’s off-the-court demeanor doesn’t reflect her competitive character in a game. 

“She has helped us and the volleyball program get back to state, which is a huge accomplishment,” Lee said. “I just could not be more proud of such a deserving young lady to sign a scholarship today. I think Danielle has so many great qualities about her, but one thing that sticks out to me is she has such a sweet spirit but on that court she is a fierce competitor.”

Greene recently helped the Trojans reach the 4A state basketball finals against Deshler, but her favorite accomplishment is helping St. James earn a berth in the state volleyball tournament, an incredible achievement this season for a rebuilding squad that has been bumped up to 6A by the Competitive Balance Factor.

“That meant everything to me,” Greene said, “because we weren’t expected to get as far as we did, but we just gave it our best and I’m glad our best was enough.”