Photos by Joe Ungaro Irvington High School held a signing day ceremony for six students who signed to play Division 1 college football next year. Seated, from right, are Zakaa Brown, Jasin Shiggs, Vaboue Toure, Cam Ron Richardson, Jahide Lasaine and Maraad Watson.
IRVINGTON — The six young men sat patiently behind a table in the Irvington High School gym as family, classmates, teachers and staff filed in.
They smiled and talked with each other and friends and family who approached them where they sat.
Dec. 20 was a big life changing day; each young man was about to sign a letter of intent to play college football at a big name university; Penn State, Syracuse, Towson and Stanford. They are all graduating this month so they can go off to college at the start of next year to begin their studies early.
“This is the culmination of hard work, sacrifice and most importantly commitment,” Principal Darnel Mangan said. “This journey started long before today.”
About 300 people, including students, faculty, staff and family members, were in the gym for the ceremonial signing.
Mangan called the crowd to order, greeted the audience and spoke briefly about what it all meant.
“Irvington is a different place. There is opportunity here on Clinton Avenue,” Mangan said, addressing students in the audience and citing the location of the high school. “This can be you.”
He encouraged the students to stay committed to their goals and to work to overcome whatever obstacles come before them.
“The commitment to hard work, family, brotherhood, you were brought up that way,” Mangan said, before turning the microphone over to Coach Nhemie Theodore.
“It’s been a blessing to coach them,” Theodore said looking in the area where family members were sitting.
Theodore said he had traveled to many parts of the world, including Italy, Africa and Australia but Irvington stands out.
“I’ve been all over the world and there’s no place like Irvington,” he said.
Theodore asked each player to speak and they did, with all offering thanks for all the help they had received along the way.
“I want to thank God for the opportunity and the coaches for helping with the ability,” said Zakaa Brown, who is headed to Towson.
.Jasin Shiggs, who is also headed to Towson, thanked Allah and said there were too many others he wanted to thank so he said “If you know, you know if you were there. Thank you.”
Cam Ron Richardson, who will be attending Stanford University, was also grateful to people and to his hometown.
“I want to thank everyone who was part of this,” he said. “I’ll carry the spirit of ‘The Irv’ with me forever.”
Jahide Lasaine, who is headed to Syracuse University, also spoke affectionately of his hometown.
“To come from Irvington, it was a blessing,” he said. “I just love Irvington.”
Maraad Watson, who is also going to Syracuse University, was succinct in his thanks.
“I thank everyone who helped me through the struggles on my journey,” Watson said. “I appreciate y’all.”
Vaboue Toure is headed to Penn State. He seemed to have a particularly large number of family members in attendance. He thanked everyone for coming to the event and singled out a few others.
“I’d like to thank the Irvington coaching staff, my family, my brothers who I looked up to and followed in their footsteps,” he said.
Ronnette Jones, mother of Cam Ron Richardson, seemed a little choked up after the event.
“It’s overwhelming,” she said. “But I’m excited for his next journey. We’re going to miss him, out in California, but this is great for him.”
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