HHS safety commits to Tulsa

Being in a unique position to evaluate talent for the college ranks and the NFL you seemingly always get the early word on a football player starting to attract plenty of attention.

That player the last three weeks has been Hahnville defensive back Brion James.

But James ended the mystery on where he will attend college when he announced last week that he had verbally committed to play college football at Tulsa.

James, a 6-1 ½, 192 pound athlete, has played both cornerback and safety for the Tigers, but he projects to the safety position in college.

Having watched James play quite a bit this season I have been very impressed with his foot speed, his range out on the field and his aggressive nature. James is also a very good special teams performer and he should make an early impact for Tulsa in this area.

Tulsa was the lone school to offer the versatile James, but he had been recruited by UL-Lafayette and Southeastern Louisiana, and had recently been eyed by Mississippi State and Colorado.

Hahnville head coach Lou Valdin is excited about James’ ability to play at the college level.

“Brion’s our best player on defense and an outstanding overall athlete,” Valdin said. “He’s a good cover guy. He hits like a linebacker. He also punts and kicks off for us. He kicked a 48-yard field goal this season against Lutcher. He’s a great kid. Brion is a great character young man and a good citizen. He’s the kind of young man everybody wants in their program.”

James is the third local River Parish athlete to commit to Tulsa in 2010 and he joins Lutcher High School defensive back Todd Washington and East St. John High School quarterback Kalen Henderson to verbally commit to the Golden Hurricanes.