National Signing Day is today and the local senior athletes in Spalding County are putting their pens to national letters of intent to play collegiate athletics next fall.

Griffin High wingback Darrin “Buck” Hancock, who was a preseason All-Region 4-AAAA selection at running back and helped the Griffin Bears football team reach consecutive state final fours, will be signing with Garden City Community College in Garden City, Kansas.

Hancock, who will be attending the same school his father Darrin attended years ago, will sign his letter at Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church, located at 123 W. Cherry Street in Griffin, at 4:30 p.m.

Spalding High girls soccer player Lauren Barlow will join her former high school teammate Patricia-Anne Upson, as she will sign her letter of intent to play for Mercer College in Macon today at 2 p.m. at Spalding High. And speaking of Spalding High, former Jags standout Willie Hamm will sign a letter of intent to play college football at Clark Atlanta University at 2:30 p.m. today at SHS.

Two former Griffin High athletes are also expected to sign letters of intent today at their current high schools. Tank Sessions, a senior at Columbia High, will sign to play college football at Florida State, while Markeith Ambles, a senior wide receiver at Henry County, will decide where to play from a list of schools that start with the University of Tennessee, University of Southern California, North Carolina, LSU and Alabama.

Several other local seniors expected to sign scholarship letters at a later date include: Brandon Williamson, Cartavious Woods, Dontre Morris, Demetrius Williams, Marcus Waller and Denarius Appling from Griffin High; Demarcus “Scoop” Allen, Will Jeffcoat, Casey Chafin, Zae Fuller and Grayson Jones from Spalding; Josh Robinson, Trey Epperson and Gralon Head from Griffin Christian as well as Ty Reeves from Skipstone.