Head coach Kelley Lee and the rest of the Eastern New Mexico football staff wrapped up a successful 2019 National Signing Day following a busy Wednesday full of activity with another crop of talented and eager football signees.
The 2019 signing class consists of athletes from nine different states including: New Mexico, California, Texas, Florida, Colorado, Arizona, Hawaii, Alaska and Georgia. This year’s class addressed some pressing needs to the Eastern New Mexico football roster and also gained some developmental athletes that will benefit from a program known for developing talent to fit its system and culture.
A majority of those immediate needs were addressed by way of eight mid-year transfers that enrolled in classes at Eastern for the spring semester and are already involved in spring workouts with the program. The extra semester of work and getting those mid-year transfers in early to participate in spring practice and offseason conditioning will help the Hounds bolster their roster with immediate help in the 2019 season.
“We needed to address our receiving core and I think we did that through some transfers and young guys that can really be used as weapons in our offense,” Coach Lee said, “We also wanted to get some young defensive lineman, we’ve gotten some good transfers as of late, but we really wanted to get some good, young high school guys and I think we achieved that.”
Another key area that coach Lee mentioned that the coaching staff focused on improving was the overall team speed in the defensive backfield, an area in which the Hound coaching staff primarily focused on the talent-rich state of Florida in order to address. The Hounds signed a total of four defensive backs from the state of Florida alone, and will look for those guys to continue the tradition of quality defensive backs from the state in the Lone Star Conference.
The Hounds also continued their tradition of signing some of New Mexico’s best in-state talent and signed a handful of athletes from local area schools including Roswell, Eunice, Portales, and Artesia High Schools. Eastern maintained strong recruiting ties in the state of Texas with athletes signing on to be Greyhounds from all over the Lone Star State, proving that the Hounds have no problem competing in and winning recruiting battles against their Texas based Lone Star Conference competition.
“There’s a lot of people that go into the recruiting process and I want to thank them all, especially my coaching staff, we really expanded our recruiting base and won some key battles.” Coach Lee said, “They really got out there and grinded and recruited these kids hard to sell them on our program and I really am truly proud of them and their hard work.”
The Eastern New Mexico football program will be announcing its spring football schedule in the next coming weeks, as well as their 2019 regular season schedule.
