Rock Hill’s Perryman signs with Furman
Rock Hill High senior Donavon Perryman had to sweat it out a bit, but he signed a football scholarship with Furman Friday morning, proving that the wait was worthwhile.
“It’s tough on these kids this day and age where they want to all sign on the first day, Signing Day,” said Rock Hill coach Bubba Pittman. “Signing Day is the first day, it’s not the last day you can sign. We tried to be patient with it and he did a good job of understanding that.”
Perryman is an excellent student and extremely well-liked at Rock Hill High, according to his coach. Pittman said Perryman’s early morning signing ceremony was the most crammed he’d seen at the school.
“The room was so packed I couldn’t even get in the door,” said Pittman. “It stayed that way for about 30 minutes after it was over, just people wanting to shake his hand and congratulate him. Teachers, students, everybody loves Donavon. We’re real proud of him.”
Later on Friday, Perryman was practicing with the Bearcats’ girls’ basketball team, helping them prepare for their 4A Upper State championship game Saturday against Spring Valley.
But his future lies on the football field, where Pittman thinks he’ll likely end up as an outside linebacker.
Perryman finished 2015 with 106 tackles in 11 contests. He was most dangerous rushing the quarterback, racking up 11 sacks and six tackles-for-loss. Perryman also recovered three fumbles and forced another, while blocking two kicks.
Perryman wants to study medicine and Furman was his top choice. He also had opportunties at Coastal Carolina, Presbyterian and Division II school, Union College.
“He has big aspirations,” said Pittman. “He wants to get into the medical field and we sat down a bunch of times in the office and said, ‘how do we get there?’ and Furman was top on the list to be able to help him reach those goals.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Rock Hill’s Perryman signs with Furman."