ORRVILLE — Keith High School linebacker and ASWA All-State player, Demarquis Lumpkin, signed on to play football with Tuskegee University Wednesday.

In a school assembly, family members gathered around Lumpkin while he signed his scholarship and his classmates cheered, and even cried tears of joy, as he put the pen to the paper.

Lumpkin was coached by former Greenville High School quarterback Harry Crum, who is now the head coach at Keith.

“He is one of the toughest football players I’ve ever coached,” Crum said of Lumpkin, who made 116 tackles last season. “He only played in 10 games this season because he actually had a cracked hand at the beginning of the season, which kind of limited him, but he was still able to do exceptionally well in All-State and in the line backer position.”

The last player from Keith High School to sign on to a college football team was Orrville native Jimmy Richardson in 2004. Richardson signed on with Alabama A&M University.

“We haven’t had this happen in a long time,” Crum said. “This is a coaches dream and I am very excited about the fact that we have somebody that is signing a scholarship, because it gives them an opportunity to jump start the rest of their lives.”