Nineteen new athletes will help the Colonels defend their Southland Conference Championship next season.Head football coach Jay Thomas announced Feb. 1 that 17 new recruits had signed letters of intent to play for the Colonels.

The 17 new recruits join the two mid-year signees who are already on campus and will participate in spring drills.

Of the 19 overall commitments, eight are from Louisiana, five from the Houma-Thibodaux area; three are from Mississippi, two from Florida, three from Alabama, two from Texas and one from California.

“I’m very excited about this class,” Thomas said. “We have a lot of athletes in this class. We’ve got good solid kids. We needed to fill some holes particularly on the defensive side and the defensive back field.”

The Colonels lost 12 seniors from last year’s championship squad but added 11 defensive and six offensive players to fill the voids.

Joining the Colonels this season will be: quarterbacks Chris Bunch of Rainy River Community College (Minn.), Zach Chauvin from Thibodaux High, Nolan Dumas from E.D. White and Kyle Hughes from Little Cypress High School (Texas).

The lone running back commitment for the Colonels is Grant Thorne from Long Beach Community College (Calif.).

Seven defensive backs committed to Nicholls including Justin Arbuckle from Central Lafourche, Lester Brooks from Itawamba Community College (Miss.), Dominique Daniels from East Bay High School (Fla.), Kenny Lewis from Dutchtown High School, Demetrius “Dip” McCoy from Thibodaux High, Kenny Owens from Theodore High School (Ala.) and T.J. Terrell from Madison High School (Texas).

Other defensive players to commit were defensive ends Zach Reddix from Dutchtown and Jarvis Sigler from McGill Toolen High School, (Ala.), linebackers Jamie Granier from Thibodaux High and Garrick Spain from Hanson Memorial in Franklin.

Kicker/Punter Patrick Dolan, also from McGill Toolen High School gives the Colonels added depth on special teams.

The only players eligible to participate in spring drills are mid-year signees Matt Blanchard, offensive lineman from Northeast Mississippi Community College, and running back Mike McLendon from Pearl River Community College also in Mississippi.

This year, things were a little more difficult for Thomas and his staff because many recruits relocated due to Hurricane Katrina.

“The storms really pushed our boundaries,” Thomas said. “We had to work a little farther east than normal. Our staff managed, and I really think we got a top notch class this year.”

Overall, Thomas said he’s looking forward to getting spring practice started in March.