Southern Utah 2012 signing class

CEDAR CITY -- Southern Utah University's football team has added 28 players to the ranks through national letters of intent on Wednesday, SUU Coach Ed Lamb announced.

Included in the signing class are 20 Utah preps, four high school athletes from California, two Nevada preps, one from Tonga and one junior college signee.

Included in the list is one high school player who committed to the Thunderbirds early and has already enrolled at SUU, long snapper Kolton Donovan, from St. George's Pine View High School. Donovan is ranked as the No. 4 long snapper in the nation in this year's signing class.

Other local signees include Hurricane High RB Brian Scott and DB Taylor Parker, as well as QB Porter Harris and LB Mike Needham of St. George's Desert Hills HS. Scott was named Utah's 3A MVP by the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune, Parker and Needham were both first-team all-state selections and Harris was a second-team all-state honoree.

In addition to the local athletes, SUU signed five defensive linemen, three offensive linemen, two wide receivers, a linebacker, a running back and a quarterback from Utah.

The defensive linemen include Kole Afu and Shad Enis from Alta HS, Rhett Bird from North Sanpete, Filipe Fifita- Sitake from Mountain View and David Stephens from Fremont HS.

SUU also signed wide receivers Cole Payne from Orem and Martavius Redmond. Both were first-team all-state selections this season.

Offensive line signees from Utah are Jason Brimhall of American Fork High, Evan Ross from Fremont and Spencer Rudolph of Davis HS.

Commitments also came in from LB Taylor Pili of Granger High, RB Christian Taele of Spanish Fork and CB Yabbitse Wells from Sky View.

Signees from California included the team's only junior college signee, OL Kyle Donaldson from Orange Coast College, as well as ATH Mike Evans from Esparto HS, ATH Raysean Martin from Hayward's Tennyson HS, OL Anthony Sarrocco of Moorpark HS and QB Austin Young of Colfax HS.

SUU also inked DL Peterson Taeao from Las Vegas Liberty HS, ATH Malik Brown from Las Vegas' Canyon Springs HS, and ATH Sione Fukofuka from Liahona HS in Nuku'alofa, Tonga.

"First, I want to thank the Utah high school football coaches for opening their doors to our coaching staff" Lamb said. "We were able to gain commitments from 20 Utah high school players, which should help us maintain our status as Utah's most representative Division I roster.

"The incoming class includes seven Utah first-team all- state honorees, three presidential scholars, an average GPA of 3.57, one Utah state triple jump champion, one Utah state wrestling champion, one Tongan national rugby system player, one Nevada first-team all-state honoree, four mid- year enrollees who are already training with the team and one JC transfer."

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