Posted: Nov 20, 2013

Dayshawn Watkins inks with the Florida State Seminoles

Dayshawn Watkins, center, signs his national letter of intent to play basketball for Florida State University on Tuesday as his teammates look on.

North Little Rock, Ark., native and Holmes Community College Bulldog freshman point guard Dayshawn Watkins fulfilled his dream on Tuesday afternoon by signing a national letter of intent with Florida State University Seminoles.

"The coaches really believed in me," Watkins said. "They believed I fit their system and I believe it, too, so that was the right choice for me."

"It's a big opportunity and a blessing to play in the ACC. It's the best conference in the country right now. The ACC was off the charts so I had to take it! This is a blessing and I always wanted to play on a high level and the ACC is one of the highest levels. I am going to keep grinding and I can't back down now. I have to stay humble and keep working."

The 6'0, 175 pounder describes himself as a "pass-first" point guard. "I'm going to get my team involved regardless of whether I'm scoring or not," Watkins said. "If I need to score, I will. I think I'm a winner. If you don't have a coach on the floor, your team is not going to run the way you want it to run."

Watkins said he's pleased with his effort and the team's effort so far of the young season. "In the first six games, we've played pretty competitively as a team. We will start jelling later on in the season. All I can do is to continue to work hard and keep picking up the team and picking up the intensity and being more aggressive."

"We are highly confident. We are getting better every day. We have a lot of freshman. I'm a freshman myself. We are coming together as a team, we are brothers. Hopefully, we are going to win state, region and get to nationals and win nationals if it's the Lord's will. We are going to keep grinding every day."

Through four games, Watkins is averaging 13.5 points per game. He is playing 28 minutes per game and is shooting 44 percent from the floor and 77 percent from the free throw line.

Watkins said it's been a blessing to have Bulldog coaches Jason Flanigan and Jason Harrison in his life. It's a blessing for them taking me in," Watkins said. "I'm learning every day from them. They help me a lot. I love them."

Holmes Community College Head Coach Jason Flanigan described Watkins' signing as "a great day for Holmes Community College. Dayshawn is a great kid with great character. I'm proud for his parents, also. They trusted us with their son. When we first started this process, the only thing they asked us to do was to take care of their son. They wanted him to be able to sign a with a bigger school. We fulfilled that blessing.

Flanigan said having a kid sign with an ACC school is great for the MACJC. "I'm extremely excited about this signing today," Flanigan said. "Hopefully we'll have more guys to sign with Division I schools later on in the year."

As for Watkins play on the floor, Flanigan said, "Dayshawn is a coach on the floor. He gets us in the right situation and the right places at the right time. He makes plays for his teammates. He comes to work HARD every day. He's the type of kid a coach wants for in all of his players every year. We are fortunate to have Dayshawn. This is truly a blessing as far as coaching Dayshawn this year.

"When he first got here he was looking to score," he added. "Coach Harrison and I sat him down and talked to him. To be a point guard at the next level you have to make guys better. After that, he's been doing a better job at making his teammates better. He's still learning, but I think after this one year of experience at HCC, he's going to be ready for the ACC."

Having Watkins and fellow freshman Jarvis Williams, Flanigan said the Bulldogs have two capable point guards to lead the team. "After missing the first two games, things were a little differently when he came back," Flanigan said. "Dayshawn is more vocal - having two coaches on the floor such as Jarvis Williams and Dayshawn Watkins, has helped tremendously. Last year, we were lacking that at the point guard position. Tamarico Wilson did a great job trying to run our team, but he was uncomfortable. With Dayshawn and Jarvis handling the position, it has freed up Tamarico to concentrate on scoring. He's done a great job with that.

"So far we've gotten off to a pretty good start," he added. "We've started off 4 - 2, unfortunately we lost two games at home. As a coach, I didn't like that, but we will continue to improve daily. We've got to constantly keep getting better in practice and not take practice for granted – make each practice count."