Washington Co. Football Players Headed to College Gridiron

Laughter filled the WashingtonCountyHigh School library as 6 young men found their dreams turn to reality after signing letters of intent to play college football. But their journey began with a little less laughter and more adversity.

“Four or five years ago we had our first losing season we’ve had in twenty years and these guys were freshmen and a lot of them had to play,” said Washington Co. Head Coach, Joel Ingram.

They played as a team. Chris Griner, Jremetrious Kirksay, Whistle Gladdin, Wesley Evans, Damien Johnson, and Chartavious Danzy accomplished collective goals.

Now they’re on the way to playing college football.

Offensive lineman Chartavious Danzy is headed to Ft.ValleyStateUniversity.

“I’m just very excited to move up to a higher career. You know what I’m saying and I’m just ready to play ball,” said Danzy.

Chris Griner signed to play for DeanCollege and says this day all comes back to hard work.

“Just took it one game at a time. Practice hard you know. Plenty of times you might want to walk off but you just got to stick to it,” said Griner.

Damien Johnson says his goals were accomplished because of solid decision making. He will play for the University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky.

“It feels good man, we got this opportunity a lot of help from Coach Ingram. He put us in a great position to make some great decisions in life and this is one of them,” said Johnson.

Jremetrious Kirksay signed to play defensive end for DeanCollege and is thankful to take his game to the next level.

“First and foremost I’d like to thank God and I’d like to thank the family that I have behind me. It’s a blessing to sign to play football; it’s something that I love to do,” said Kirksay.

Line backer Wesley Evans will take his talents to HutchinsonCommunity College and then hopefully to AlbanyState and running back Whistle Gladdin plans rack up the yards for DeanCollege.

Coach Ingram says this group pushed through the difficult times and became successful together.

“Over the last three years we’ve enjoyed tremendous success. Those guys have been the trailblazers every step of the way. I could on and on about them. High character group of guys, great work ethic and a very very close knit group as you can see,” said Coach Ingram.