Tallulah Academy football players Scott James, Cade Marsh and Cole Grissom, from left, will play at Delta State next season. (Melanie Duncan ThortisThe Vicksburg Post)

[4/12/04]TALLULAH When Delta State needed a few players to fill out this year’s recruiting class, it turned to tiny Tallulah Academy for all its shopping needs.

Three Trojans lineman Scott James, running back Cade Marsh and defensive back Cole Grissom have committed to Delta State. They are still waiting on paperwork to be completed to make their signing official, but all three have enrolled at the school.

“I just like that they have a good program. They’ve had a good program for as long as I can remember,” said Marsh, the two-time Vicksburg Post All-Area Player of the Year.

McNeese State liked James, a 6-foot-7 offensive and defensive lineman who had 87 tackles and six sacks last season. Southern Miss and Arkansas were looking at Grissom, who had 90 tackles and five interceptions as a defensive back.

And a host of Division I-A schools wanted Marsh, who rushed for 1,546 yards and 22 touchdowns in 2003, as a backup running back and kick returner.

Signing day came and went in early February without any firm offers, however, and Tallulah assistant Brandon Parker went to work.

He sent out highlight tapes and made phone calls to a host of colleges. Some schools were interested in his players, but didn’t have any scholarships left to offer. Delta State had been on the trail of all three Trojans, though, and did have some money left. They took another look at James, Marsh, and Grissom, and made an offer.

“There were two or three colleges interested in one of them or two or three colleges interested in another one. I had been talking to the coaches up there (at DSU) and they needed an offensive lineman, a defensive back, a kick returner and a backup running back,” Parker said. “I told them we had an offensive lineman who was 6-foot-7, and they liked the speed of Cade and Cole.”

The three teammates took a visit to Delta State and liked what they saw, too. Each had a slightly different reason for committing, but the chance to play college football and do it with old friends was a familiar theme.

“I like it. You’ll be able to play with people you already know something about,” James said. “I think that’ll help out a lot. You won’t feel so out of place up there.”

Grissom’s decision was also based on the chance to play football with Marsh, a friend and classmate since preschool, and James, who has been at Tallulah for two years but has developed into a good friend.

“More than anything, it was probably that I had friends going with me,” Grissom said. “You don’t always get that opportunity.”

The opportunity is especially rare for a player from an Academy-A school. With football teams that typically have only 20 to 25 players on the roster, and limited exposure, chances for players from those schools to play college football are few and far between.

To get three players from the same graduating class to sign with the same college is an exceptionally rare feat.

“It’s hard, because most colleges won’t even look at you if you’re not nationally known or in the papers everywhere. A lot of colleges wouldn’t even look at the film,” Parker said. “You count three of nine seniors going to the same school, and it’s pretty rare. It’s never been done here.”