GREYHOUND FOOTBALL
Signing day events can be full of last-minute surprises and flips, and two Greyhound football standouts executed a signing-day flip of their own last Wednesday, when Javious Bond and Javion Clark both announcing that they were signing national letters of intent to sign with East Carolina.
Wednesday’s early signing day events come after Bond had previously committed to Memphis and Clark having earlier pledged to Georgia Tech and more recently, Toledo. Bond starred as a defensive back and running back for the Greyhounds with Clark making a name for himself as a hard-hitting, ball-hawking safety. Playing in six games this past season, Bond averaged 75 rushing yards per game with five touchdowns and three receiving with Clark’s exploits including a pair of interceptions and a punt block.
“It’s been a very confusing week, there were a lot of calls. I talked to a lot of coaches and saw a lot of coaches,” Bond said.
The fact that both announced their flip on signing day was not a coincidence.
“It was not a hard decision, but it was easier when my brother, ‘Pinball,’ Javion Clark came,” Bond said. “We kind of planned to flip together as a kind of a brotherhood. It’ll be a lot easier to go to college somewhere with someone that you grew up with.”
Now, they’ll be headed to play for the Pirates program, which plays in the American Athletic Conference, that won’t require much of a colorwheel adjustment as ECU’s primary colors are purple and gold. In fact, one of the Pirates’ monikers is ‘paint it purple’ and ECU’s on-field entrance at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium takes place with the team running through purple smoke with “Purple Haze” from Jimi Hendrix playing over the loudspeakers.
ECU is a program on the rebound, having gone 7-5 in the regular season the past two years after six losing seasons in a row. The Pirates received a bowl invite to the Birmingham Bowl following the past regular season, and other AAC opponents of note include South Florida, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston. Future scheduled non-conference opponents for the Pirates include Michigan, Marshall, Appalachian State, BYU, Boise State and West Virginia.
“When I visited, the players, you can tell they really love the school. The coaches are cool. It’s a good football town and they have really good facilities,” Bond said. “It felt a lot like home. Just walking around the city, it’s not too much like the big city and not too much like the country, either.”
