By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Osceola High seniors Oscar McGee and T.J. Tatume joined a growing parade of local football players who signed grants with Pikeville College.

There’s a good reason they selected the Kentucky-based college: Assistant Coach Dayne Brown, the same guy who coached against them the past three seasons when Brown was Harmony High’s head coach.

Brown resigned in January to take the Pikeville job, and he’s been busy, and productive.

In getting McGee, one of the county’s fastest and best defensive backs, and Tatume, a tall (6-2) wide receiver with big-play ability, Brown is filling holes on the Bears roster.

“These kids are great kids,” Brown said. “If you can get together what amounts to an all-star team from Osceola County, then you should win a few games at our level.”

Brown also has signed players from Liberty and Harmony.

Pikeville, an NAIA program, has a new head coach in Dudley Hilton, a veteran of 36 years and a three-time high school champion in Kentucky.

McGee, who ran 11.1 at 100 meters during the track season, said that knowing Brown and many of the players he is signing with made his decision to go to Kentucky easier.

“That had a lot to do with it. You feel more comfortable,” he said.

Even so, Pikeville is a rural campus located in the mountains.

“It’s a change, but it’s a change no matter where you go,” he said.

McGee, who had 33 tackles and three interceptions for the Kowboys last season, and 30 tackles during his junior year, plans to study business administration.

Tatume led the Kowboys with 18 receptions for 214 yards and three touchdowns last season. As a junior, he had 156 yards on 12 receptions for an OHS offense that rarely threw.

“I’m fighting for him (with Pikeville’s offensive coordinator) up there,” Brown, the team’s defensive coordinator said. “Receiver is a position of need for us, so I’m probably not going to get him, but I’d love to see him and (McGee) at safeties.”

Tatume, like McGee, likes the idea of going to a college where he knows many of the recruits.

“That helps,” he said.

In fact, he won’t mind the rural location, as long as he can find a stream to fish in.

“He loves it,” Osceola Coach Doug Nichols said. “You can’t get him off the lake.”

Tatume said his big catch was a 12-pound bass.

Nichols thinks Brown snared a couple of good ones from his football team.

“It’s a good fit for them. It’s going to work out well,” Nichols said.

The players and many Kowboys fans were stunned by the recent shooting death of former OHS player Hasaun Ortiz, a 2007 Osceola graduate, who played for coaches Jim Scible and Jeff Rolson. Several hundred attended his funeral service last week.