The college recruiting process moves extremely quickly.
After suffering a season-ending injury, Joshua Foxworthy thought coaches were going to pass him by, so he didn’t give much thought to the pageantry of National Signing Day.
Foxworthy’s thoughts changed last Thursday, when his father informed him he had received a phone call last from a Holmes Community College coach who was interested in having him come to the campus for a visit.
Three days later, Foxworthy knew he was going to play football in Goodman.
“It is a great campus, I love the town, the coaching staff is amazing, the defensive coordinator is mentally insane. It is perfect,” Foxworthy said.
On Wednesday, Foxworthy and Logan Bell finalized their college plans by signing National Letters of Intent to attend Holmes C.C. and defending national champion East Mississippi C.C. in Scooba.
Foxworthy, a transfer from Victory Christian, likes the notion of playing on the defensive line for defensive coordinator Chris Woods. Foxworthy said Woods loves to blitz and is very aggressive. He said he is excited to play for someone with that much energy. It also will be exhilarating to know he has another chance closer to home after seeing his season end prematurely due to a torn labrum and an injury that required surgery to his collar bone.
“They are both tremendous athletes,” Heritage Academy football coach Barrett Donahoe said. “From an overall standpoint of what they did for our program, I don’t know that you can put a value on that because they were so instrumental in everything we did in all three phases of the game.”
Donahoe said Foxworthy’s absence up front was felt immediately but that he more than made an impression in the first nine weeks of the season. He said Bell was a playmaker at wide receiver who helped the Patriots put a lot of points on the board.
“I am so pleased the guys to get an opportunity to play at the next level and coaches taking the chance to take these guys in and seeing the value in them and the value we were able to get out of them night after night,” Donahoe said.
Bell’s brother, Brandon, played this past season at EMCC and will try to walk on at Ole Miss. Logan said the coaches at EMCC said he likely will redshirt, but that doesn’t faze him because he feels he is going to a program where he can grow, learn, and open another door to play football at a four-year school. Being a playmaker and someone who can fill numerous roles, Bell is eager to immerse himself in an offense that loves to throw the football.
“I can’t wait to play on that turf field,” Bell said. “I asked my brother how it was (at EMCC) and he said it would be a great fit and a great place to play college ball.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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