St. Pauls' Galbreath, Blanding sign to play college basketball
Jun. 8—ST. PAULS — St. Pauis High School seniors Marcus Galbreath and Elijah Blanding each signed to play collegiately during a ceremony at the school Thursday.
Galbreath will play at the junior-college level at Pitt Community College, while Blanding earned an NCAA Division-III opportunity at Methodist University.
Galbreath will join another team of Bulldogs on the PCC campus, located in Winterville, near Greenville.
"Family, the basketball, the campus; I just felt like it was the right fit, the team, how everybody was working like I was family," Galbreath said. "I took that in and put everything in one basket, and that's how it was the right fit."
The tall and lanky forward averaged a team-high 9.5 points, with 7.3 rebounds and 1.0 blocks, in his senior season at St. Pauls.
"Pitt's getting a really good player, a determined player, a player that has untapped potential that's really going to come in and do what he's supposed to do and impact the game on both sides of the court," St. Pauls coach Corey Thompson said. "He's done that for four years here at St. Paul's and we're really happy that he's moving on and transitioning to the next level."
"In recruiting I like length, due to our style of play," said PCC coach Darrick Mullins, who was in attendance at Thursday's ceremony. "One of the biggest things was an established relationship with Coach Thompson over the years, him recruiting a former PCC player (as a college assistant), and then we followed his development and what he's doing at St. Pauls. I've seen M.J. on several occasions, Fab40, and during the basketball regular season, and he came on campus and took a visit, and got his family's support about attending PCC, so we felt like he was a good match."
Blanding will stay closer to home and play at Methodist, in Fayetteville.
"It's a good school, they've got a lot of good stuff going on, and not a lot of good programs, not just basketball," Blanding said. "The coach is pretty good, I like him, and it seemed like a good fit."
Blanding, a guard, averaged 8.2 points and 2.9 rebounds per game as a senior.
"Methodist is getting a really good player, they're getting a kid that's going to come in and work," Thompson said. "A kid that can really do some things on the offensive side and is improving very good on the defensive side of the court. Elijah did some really good things for us this year; I wish we had another year with him, but he's definitely going to do some really good things at Methodist."
Both players are not the first college athletes in their families; Galbreath's brother Deonte Bridges played at Belmont Abbey, while Blanding's sister Iyania Evans is currently playing at St. Augustine's.
"It's a dream come true," Galbreath said. "I remember watching my brother sign and I couldn't wait for my day. Same library."
"It's a lot of motivation and stuff, family, carrying the torch, stuff like that," Blanding said.
Galbreath had several other offers across different levels of college basketball; Blanding had another offer from Mid-Atlantic Christian University.
The pair are part of a St. Pauls senior class with a 52-20 record with the Bulldogs over the last four years.
"Anytime you have any guys in your program sign and move on to play at the next level, that's going to help us overall as a program, and it just shows the growth of our program," Thompson said. "Last year we had Jeyvian Tatum that went to Fayetteville Tech, so we're continuing to have kids go out and be able to play at the next level, if that's what they want to do, play basketball, or whether they want to get into the work force or the military, we're just here as a program to try to get them going in the right direction."
Sports editor Chris Stiles can be reached at 910-816-1977 or by email at cstiles@robesonian.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @StilesOnSports.
