Francis Marion guard Jeremy Arrington played all-out, all-the- time for the Rams and coach Woodie Jackson.

The senior brought a hard-nosed leadership to the floor.

He was tenacious on and off the ball.

All that work paid off on Thursday as Arrington signed scholarship papers to play for coach John Douglas at Lawson State Community College.

“Jeremy had a great career for us, he’s an extremely hard player and a very intelligent young man,” Jackson said. “He’s a hard-nosed guy. We gave him the Ironman nickname.

He’s an old-school type player.”

Douglas, who played in the NBA and at Kansas, has been at Lawson for a season.

“The first thing that came to view was his toughness,” Douglas said of his new player.

“The thing that I really like about him is that he’s skillful handling the basketball.”

For Arrington, lots of things factored into his choice.

“I liked the campus, the teachers that I met and the coach and also the team,” Arrington said.

Arrington added that signing to play college ball was something he’d been looking forward to for quite some time.

Playing in Birmingham, Arrington will see a familiar face at least a few times a year.

Fellow Ram Julius Allgood signed to play with rival Southern Union.

“It’s going to be very fun to whup up on an old teammate,” Arrington said.

Allgood said he wouldn’t take it easy on his old teammate.

“It’s going to be fun to show each other how much we’ve improved,” Allgood said.

“I think Jeremy can do a lot of things for us,” Douglas said. “He’s tough, he can see the court well and if we work on him to establish a jump shot, I think he can play small college Division 1 basketball.”