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Long Beach Poly’s signing class for 2024 grew to 21 as they honored a dozen athletes from football, swimming, baseball and golf on Wednesday afternoon for the school’s third signing day celebration of the year. The class is expected to grow to more than two dozen by the time they do their final presentation at the end of the school year.
The scholarship signees honored on Wednesday in a presentation at the school’s Osman Auditorium were: Darius Curry (football, Colorado State), Charles Clinton (football, Utah Tech), Titus Bordeaux (football, Black Hills State), Cameron Gherardi (football, Idaho State), Quimari Shemwell (football, Arizona), Connor English (baseball, Eastern university), Luke Buggs (football, Davidson), Jebbadiah Tuupo (football, Western New Mexico), Colin Powell (football, Graceland), Evan Jue (swimming, New York University), Max Pemberton (baseball, Claremont McKenna) and Madison Williams (golf, Prairie View A&M).
After boys’ athletic director Rob Shock gave an opening statement thanking the families for entrusting Poly with their children, he encouraged the student-athletes to come back and show the way for the next generation. Then the athletes signed their National Letters of Intent and got to pose for pictures with family, friends, and coaches. Each athlete was also introduced one-by-one and got to walk the stage with their walkup song playing and a graphic with their name, photo, and school up on the big screen.
“We always try to do it up big for our kids, this is a special day for us,” said Shock.
Gherardi signed with Idaho State after they made it clear he was a priority for them. He, Tuupo, Bordeaux, Buggs, and Powell were all new signees for football; the team previously recognized Curry, Clinton, Shemwell, and others at a December signing.
“I had to miss my first five games, but it means a lot knowing I made the right decision coming to Poly, everything worked out for me,” said Gherardi. “Playing at the next level was my dream and I made it because of Poly.”
He said the recruiting process was stressful but that Idaho State is going to utilize him as a true free safety, a position he excelled at with the Jackrabbits.
Tuupo was another signee for the Jackrabbits, opting for Western New Mexico. He said that like many student-athletes, he spent a good chunk of his senior year stressing about scholarship opportunities.
“This is a blessing, blessing that was showered on me,” said Tuupo. “I put so much thought into this with my family. And right when I signed I felt all that pressure that was on me just come off.”
A two-sport student-athlete, Buggs got a big roar of applause when he signed. He’s the third Buggs sibling to graduate from Poly with a scholarship and fourth sibling to graduate as a Jackrabbit. He said the high academics of Davidson was a big part of his decision to go to school there.
“They were the first ones to believe in me and give me a shot, and being somewhere that I want to be that wants me? That’s a no brainer,” he said. “It’s a hard school to get into and I was able to use football as a way to get into the school. Handling my business in the classroom led to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Getting a Davidson degree is going to be life-changing for me.”
Football players weren’t the only ones honored at Poly. The school had a pair of baseball signees as well, with Max Pemberton signing with Claremont McKenna and Connor English signing with Eastern University. Pemberton was set up to be one of the top players in the Moore League this year but the catcher will miss his senior campaign with a ruptured UCL.
“It was a big bump in my recruiting process, but I took it with a grain of salt--it’s not the end of the world and I’ll still get to play in college,” said Pemberton. “Academics were always my priority over athletics for college so I’m excited to go to a high-academic school. I’m happy that I could use baseball to help me to go my top choice for college.”
Evan Jue followed in the footsteps of his older brother in signing a scholarship. Jue will swim at New York University. The ceremony was special for him after seeing his brother and other teammates sign at Poly.
“I saw my brother do this two years ago and our guys last year, so it’s nice to be up there finally and accomplish this,” he said. Jue said he has family in and from New York and that it’s a magical place.
Poly also had a golfer, Madison Williams, sign with Prairie View A&M. That’s two senior golf scholarship signees this year as Williams joins Kate Montemayor, who signed with Cal State Bakersfield. Williams is a trailblazer in signing an HBCU scholarship to play golf, something few Long Beach athletes have done.
“I’m really excited, I feel like it’s the start of something,” she said. “Graduating from Poly on a golf scholarship is special.”
Williams comes from a family with some history in and around Poly. Her brother Troy Williams was the quarterback of the Narbonne team that beat Poly 56-0 the year Poly started 1-3 in 2012 then came back to beat St. John Bosco and Mater Dei en route to a Division 1 championship.
“We joke about it a lot actually,” said Williams. “He’s had some comments about it, but it’s all love.”
Williams said she started golfing at nine years old and has been dreaming of playing at an HBCU ever since. Even in a diverse city and at a diverse school, she’s often one of if not the only Black golfers around and said she’s looking forward to a different experience in college.
“I always wanted to go to an HBCU, I feel like it’s going to be a different experience,” she said. “I think it’ll be really cool to be around a lot of Black golfers. I think that’s going to be a little bit of a culture shock because you don’t really see that.”
The 12 honorees from Wednesday join nine previously-honored Jackrabbits: Dylan Williams (football, Oregon), Jordan Malau’ulu (football, Fresno State), Xai Ricks (track & field, Georgia), Tiare Ho-Ching (softball, Arizona State), Taylor Mercado (volleyball, Georgetown), Brooklyn Taylor (basketball, Cal State Bakersfield), Sydney Corder-Boyd (basketball, UC Merced), Mikey Beresford (football, Northern Arizona) and Kate Montemayor (golf, Cal State Bakersfield).
The scholarship signees honored on Wednesday were: Darius Curry (football, Colorado State), Charles Clinton (football, Utah Tech), Titus Bordeaux (football, Black Hills State), Cameron Gherardi (football, Idaho State), Quimari Shemwell (football, Arizona), Connor English (baseball, Eastern university), Luke Buggs (football, Davidson), Jebbadiah Tuupo (football, Western New Mexico), Colin Powell (football, Graceland), Evan Jue (swimming, New York University), Max Pemberton (baseball, Claremont McKenna) and Madison Williams (golf, Prairie View A&M).
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