Over the last month, we’ve had several players sign scholarships to play numerous sports in college. Most of the signing focus nationally is on one day — National Signing Day, which fell on Feb. 1 this year.

Football is obviously the main focus of that day, and in this state every fan waits for news of every 5-star faxing their paperwork for Alabama and Auburn, but that’s not the end of signings for each year. In fact, it’s just the beginning.

This year we’ve had numerous football players and basketball players sign scholarships since that date. On Wednesday, Morgan Academy’s Cameron Bohannon signed to play football with Hampden-Sydney. On Monday, Southside’s Kionah Page signed to play basketball at Lawson State Community College in Birmingham. A few weeks ago Leonard King Jr. agreed to play at Graceland University in Iowa.

Those schools aren’t household names, at least not compared to the SEC schools in the south that dominate the headlines, but the significance of accomplishment isn’t any less.

It doesn’t matter when these students signed their scholarship. The important thing is that they’ve secured a better future for themselves by working hard and earning the right to play the sport they love in college.

There are likely more signing ceremonies to come in the next few weeks.

We want to say congratulations to all these students, and we wish them the best of luck in the future.