Scotland’s Reddick signs letter-of-intent for Elon

LAURINBURG — Scotland’s Zy’Mere Reddick has been dreaming about this moment for a long time, and now his dream has come true.

On Wednesday morning, flocked by coaches, family, teachers and friends at his side, Reddick signed his National Letter of Intent to continue his football career at Elon University next fall.

“It means the world — I’m ready to get started,” Reddick said. “I’m the first person in my immediate family to go play ball in college. It’s a field of dreams. I got a lot of people that I’m representing and I’m going to represent them.”

Reddick said throughout the recruiting process Elon really stuck out to him since they were constantly keeping in touch with him and took the time to get to know him as a player and as a person before they offered a scholarship.

“I appreciate all the teams that recruited me,” Reddick said. “Other than sports, it’s a great educational school, too — one of the best in the country. So I feel like I’m getting the best of both worlds.”

He added that he was in touch with Elon’s recruiting coordinator and his position coach shortly after he signed and submitted his letter-of-intent. Like him, Reddick said they’re ready to get to work when he arrives on campus next summer.

“It’s emotional especially for the kids you have grown close to through the years,” said head coach Richard Bailey. “You love all of them, but there are always those that really touch your heart with their perseverance and what they have gone through to get to the next level.”

Bailey recently said he thinks he’ll have a number of other players get offers and be able to sign to play for colleges come springtime, especially after the conclusion of the upcoming season.

“It’s always great for our program to produce college football players,” he said. “At the end of the day, winning games is important, but getting these kids to college especially if they get it paid for is a true blessing to these families and our program and community.”

Reddick said he won’t be enrolling early in January and plans to stick around to play his senior season for Scotland in February.

He added he wants to showcase his versatility as a player this upcoming season. He’ll be playing both offense and defense, according to Bailey. Reddick will convert from defensive end to linebacker, which is where he plans on playing at Elon, but he’ll also be getting on the offensive side of the ball some at tight end.

“He’ll be all over the field for the Fighting Scots this spring,” Bailey said.