After what could only be described as a grueling recruiting process, Devwah Whaley woke up Wednesday morning feeling stress free.
The long-awaited National Signing Day had arrived and all of the recruiting phone calls from college coaches and players would end.
Whaley grinned ear-to-ear as he signed his National Letter of Intent with the Arkansas Razorbacks inside Central's gym.
"I woke up feeling so excited," said Whaley, who was surrounded by friends and family. "I was at the end of the process and I couldn't wait to get it over with. Knowing that I was signing took a huge burden off of my shoulders."
Whaley, who received 27 Division I offers, committed to the Razorbacks during the Under Armour All-American game on January 2nd after withdrawing his commitment to Georgia, which had made a head coaching change.
Despite his commitment to the Razorbacks, other programs continued to try and change Whaley's mind.
"Oh, it never stopped," he said. "I had a lot of coaches in my ears every day. I also had athletes from other schools talking to me on social media, but I stuck it out."
The 6-0, 195-pound Whaley said that once he committed to Arkansas, he was confident that's where he belonged.
"It wasn't easy, but I just stayed up and prayed every night," Whaley said. "I asked God to lead me and he did. I really feel like Arkansas is the best place for me."
Whaley credited the Arkansas coaching staff and the school's atmosphere as the reasons why he signed with the Razorbacks.
"Arkansas has a great staff and a great environment," he said. "I really felt at home there. It was everything that I thought it would be, and, on top of that, they have produced a lot of good running backs."
In addition to Whaley, Central had nine other players receive an opportunity to offers to play college football and t. That's something Jaguars coach Toby Foreman takes a lot of proud in.
"This day is what a lot of guys work for," Foreman said. "We had 17 seniors and by the time it is all over with, we will have about 13 of them playing football on the next level. My first year we had 15 and last year we had 14, so this never gets old. Signing day doesn't just mean a lot to the kids, but it means a lot to me, the school and the entire community."
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