Three seniors at Watson Chapel High School are bound for Arkansas Baptist College after signing national letters of intent Thursday afternoon.
Alcarlos Mack and Demarrion Kye signed with the Buffaloes’ baseball program, while Eddie Johnson is joining the football team.
Mack called it “a dream come true.”
“It’s been my dream to play college baseball since I first started playing,” Mack said. “But the work ain’t done yet.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Mack and Kye are familiar with their new college coach. Both played youth baseball for ABC skipper Sebastian Stargell, who attended their signing ceremony at Leslie Byrd Henderson Gym in full uniform, saying he had stepped away from ABC’s game against Southeast Arkansas College to be there.
Kye said his relationship with Stargell drew him to ABC.
“I just got a good bond with the coach,” Kye said. “I just feel like that’ll be best for me.”
ABC, in Little Rock, belongs to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Its teams have played in the Continental Athletic Conference since 2021.
The historically Black college has recently played the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in non-conference games across multiple sports. The baseball team played a four-game weekend series in Pine Bluff this spring, and the football team is scheduled to play in UAPB’s home opener this fall, giving the trio an opportunity to come back to Pine Bluff to play.
Johnson said he worked hard to earn this opportunity.
“It’s how you put yourself out there,” Johnson said. “Just a lot of hard work. Them my brothers right there, man. All of us sticking together, going to one college? It’s just a blessing.”
All three said they plan to major in sports management with an eye toward coaching one day.
First-year Watson Chapel baseball coach Brandon Little coached Mack and Kye this year. He said having so many Wildcats going to play college sports out of one senior class says a lot about the school and its students.
“A lot of people look down on Chapel because of the bad news that we’ve gotten the past couple years, but we got a great group of kids here,” Little said. “We’ll have a lot more coming in the future with the groups that we have under. So I think it’s really special to have three out of one class.”
They join fellow senior Chryshawn Savage, who signed with West Virginia State for track and field earlier this month.