Deriyon Graydon will follow up a four-year varsity career at Pine Bluff High School with a spot on Holmes Community College's men's basketball team.
Graydon, a key cog in Pine Bluff's run to back-to-back 5A state championships (2023-24), signed his letter of intent with the Goodman, Miss., college Thursday as fellow graduate Comarion McCoy officially committed to Arkansas Baptist College to play baseball.
The two signed inside the Jack Robey campus gym.
With Graydon's signing, Holmes Coach Jason Flanigan added to his pipeline from Pine Bluff.
He also coached former Zebras Kaleb Higgins and Jalen Tatum.
"I think it's going to be a good opportunity," Graydon said.
"With Coach Flanigan, I built a good relationship over here. He's got a good relationship with Arkansas."
That's what Graydon said Higgins and Tatum told him about Flanigan, a Little Rock Parkview alumnus.
Graydon was limited by injury following the King Cotton Holiday Classic, where he was selected all-tournament twice, but was a focal point of the Zebras earlier in his senior season.
He recorded 18.7 points, 13.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 2.8 blocks and 1.3 steals while shooting 55.7% from the floor, 34.3% from 3-point range and 66.4% in free throws.
He sustained a torn labrum that caused him to miss the final nine conference games of the season.
Despite that, he was named 5A-South All-Conference for the third year in a row and 5A All-State performer, a year after making the All-State Tournament team.
"If you go back and look at the first trophy we won in '23, it was what Deriyon was doing in the final period that helped us get over the hump the second time around," Zebras Coach Billy Dixon said.
"You've got to have those guys and what they bring to your program is never seen on game night, the preparation, the work ethic, being example for the guys.
You ask anybody who's the hardest worker on the team, they're going to say Deriyon Graydon."
Dixon added the decision to shut down Graydon for the rest of the season wasn't tough at all.
Pine Bluff was undergoing a rebuilding season with the graduation of Courtney Crutchfield and Austyn Dendy, who went on to college football careers.
"That was very simple and easy for me to do. I had struggled with it prior to the King Cotton just because you can have a sport-ending injury that will shut down everything for you, and that kid doesn't deserve that. A torn labrum is a serious deal and surgery is the only thing that repairs it."
New NCAA policy allows athletes to play up to four years at four-year institutions after using up junior college eligibility, a move Dixon said is fitting for Graydon.
Graydon played behind current University of Missouri tight end Jordon Harris during his first two seasons, using that time to learn from his moves when he wasn't on the floor.
"Coach Dixon really took me in," Graydon said.
"It was tough from Day 1. The coach he is, he always stayed on me to get to where I am now."
McCoy is a 5-foot-10 right fielder and pitcher who won Pine Bluff baseball's Unsung Hero Award, given every year to a player who demonstrates selfless ability and does everything coaches ask of him, according to Coach Ryan Stinson.
The one-year letterman was second on the team in batting average, first in fielding percentage, third in hits, first in hit-by-pitches, second in on-base percentage and second in slugging percentage.
Arkansas Baptist Coach Sebastian Stargell Sr. was there for McCoy's signing.
"I planned on going to college, but this offer helps advance that," the future business major said.
"My grandma always taught me to put God first, but with this I can have my education and do something that I love."
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