The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff football team announced Thursday that it signed five players to its 2019 recruiting class.
The class includes four junior college defensive backs and University of Missouri receiver Harry Ballard III.
At a glance
UAPB Signing class
• The following are players who signed letters of intent with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff as listed in a news release Thursday:
PLAYER HT WT POS HOMETOWN
Harry Ballard III 6-3 210 WR St. Louis
PREVIOUS SCHOOL University of Missouri
Martevious Washington 6-1 165 DB Collins, Miss.
PREVIOUS SCHOOL Southwest Mississippi Community College
Solomon Brooks 6-0 180 DB Belzoni, Miss.
PREVIOUS SCHOOL Hinds Community College (Miss.)
Taylor Holston 6-1 180 DB Cincinnati
PREVIOUS SCHOOL Iowa Central Junior College
Jaylon Thigpen 6-1 185 DB Laurel, Miss.
PREVIOUS SCHOOL Southwest Mississippi Community College
"I am very pleased with the members of this year's early signing class in terms of how it adds depth and solidifies our program on both sides of the line of scrimmage," UAPB Coach Cedric Thomas said in a news release. "We added some talented student-athletes on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball."
After originally signing with Missouri in 2016, Ballard spent his freshman season at Jones County Community College in Ellisville, Miss. Ballard did not record any statistics at Missouri in 2018.
Jaylon Thigpen (Southwest Mississippi Community College, Summit, Miss.), Martevious Washington (Southwest Mississippi Community College), Solomon Brooks (Hinds Community College, Raymond, Miss.) and Taylor Holston (Iowa Central Community College, Fort Dodge, Iowa) are expected to add "immediate depth" to UAPB's defensive secondary, Thomas said.
The remainder of UAPB's 2019 signing class will be announced Feb. 6.
"The staff did a terrific job in [the] beginning to construct our 2019 signing class during the early period," Thomas said. "We are very excited that today's group will build the foundation of what we anticipate will be another tremendous group of student-athletes during the February singing period. We are very excited about the future of Golden Lion football and the talent we have coming into Pine Bluff this summer.
Sports on 12/21/2018