Dec. 16, 2009

BEAUMONT - Four defensive backs and a wide receiver became the first players to sign with Lamar University during Wednesday's first day of the December football recruiting period.

Three of the players - defensive backs Ryan Clark and Jordan Garrett and wide receiver Josh Powdrill - played their junior college football at Navarro College, where Lamar's Ray Woodard was head coach before taking on the challenge of reviving the Cardinal program the school discontinued after the 1989 season.

Wednesday's other signees were defensive backs Jordan Garrett of Tulane and Michael Allen of College of Sequoia.

"We felt going into this recruiting period that we needed more experience in the secondary," said Woodard. "Signing four DBs today will certainly help take care of the back of end of things after we went heavy with up-front players in last year's recruiting class.

"This is an excellent start for us, and we expect to be adding a few more signees over the next few days."

Three of Wednesday's signees played their high school football in Southeast Texas. Garrett and Powdrill were all-district performers for Beaumont West Brook, while Clark did the same for Beaumont Ozen.

Garrett started 11 games at safety for Tulane last fall and made 27 tackles. Clark had two-season totals of seven interceptions and 66 tackles at Navarro, while Powdrill had 17 receptions for 335 yards and two touchdowns this past season.

As a senior at San Marcos High School, Allen had 79 tackles and three interceptions while also rushing for 906 yards and 11 TDs. Mercer helped lead Austin LBJ to the state semifinals in both football and basketball during his senior season of 2007 and 2008.

LAMAR UNIVERSITY DECEMBER FOOTBALL RECRUITS

Name Pos. Ht. Wt. College High School

Michael Allen DB 5-10 180 College of Sequoia San Marcos HS

Ryan Clark DB 6-1 190 Navarro JC Beaumont Ozen

Stephone Mercer CB 5-11 185 Navarro JC Austin LBJ

Josh Powdrill WR 5-9 165 Navarro JC Beaumont West Brook