Keith Ross fell back into his seat. He was asked about this Sumner High School senior class. He exhaled and let out a deep breath.

“Well, they are 41-5, including their freshman team,” Ross said. “They are probably the greatest group of seniors ever. Since 1977 it’s got to be the most decorated time in Sumner history.”

There’s Ben Wilson headed to the Big-12 Conference to play linebacker at Texas Christian University (TCU), Tre Weed signed his letter of intent Wednesday morning to play at Eastern Washington University, while quarterback Luke Ross, the coach’s kid, found a spot at Valley City State University in North Dakota.

“My wife’s not excited about North Dakota,” Keith Ross said. “But we already have one trip planned.”

Sumner had five football signees, and nine athletes total, honored at the school Wednesday morning as part of National Signing Day, coming a year after the Spartans sent Connor Wedington to Stanford University.

Sumner will have 12 players in college football next year, counting previous classes. And this year’s class will be at all levels – FBS, FCS, NCAA Division II, NAIA and Division III.

Jeff Baines purposefully kept his ceremony speech brief. The Sumner athletic director could have talked much longer.

“But I knew if I kept going I wasn’t going to be able to hold it together,” he said.

“I grabbed Ben for a second today and I told him, ‘You will probably never understand the impact that you have made on this school.’ And, yet, he’s probably the quietest kid, in terms of being his status and his level of an athlete. This is an amazing group of young men sitting in our gymnasium going to college not just for athletics, but academics.”

Wilson actually signed his letter of intent in December, as part of the NCAA’s first-ever early football signing period. He chose TCU over Cal, Utah, Washington and Stanford in part because he said TCU felt like Sumner – and not just because their main colors are both purple.

His father, Jody Wilson, was a linebacker at Aurora University in Illinois, but they say he’s more of a spitting image of his uncle Leo Wilson, a Golden Gloves boxing champion in Illinois.

“It was so fun to see his growth. He’s so talented and has these special gifts you can’t buy,” Ross said. “And he stayed humble, even when he could have really big-timed us. It was the same with Connor. Connor never, ever big-timed us, either.”

Eastern Washington is getting arguably the biggest steal of the 2018 class of Washington athletes, with Tre Weed headed there after earning 4A South Puget Sound League MVP this season. It comes a year after Wedington was co-MVP of the league with fellow Stanford teammate Foster Sarell of Graham-Kapowsin.

Most of the area’s biggest recruits had already signed before Wednesday, with TNT All-Area player of the year Talan Alfrey already secured at BYU out of Auburn Mountainview, and Fife lineman M.J. Ale and Emerald Ridge defensive end Mosiah Nasili-Liu both signed to UW. Though up in Seattle, Garfield’s Tre’Shaun Harrison, The News Tribune’s state player of the year who was once verbally committed to Oregon, built some suspense and announced Wednesday morning he was signing with Florida State University, following the coach who recruited him to Oregon, Willie Taggart.

But then there was Auburn Riverside defensive back Jaden Robinson, who last week was offered by Oregon State University and signed there Wednesday morning after having not even playing football until he was a sophomore. Though, Ale was the same way at Fife.

“Jaden Robinson was a guy I identified at Washington,” said new Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith, the former UW offensive coordinator. “He came to our summer camp this last summer, competed like all get out and he can run. He ran a 10.7 (100-meter) as a junior. We feel great about his ability to cover and in this league, you got to be able to cover. Jaden will fit that bill.”

Graham-Kapowsin and Lakes had the most football signees, each with six securing their college futures.

And for G-K that wasn’t including UW commit Dylan Morris, the Eagles’ all-state junior quarterback.

But he’ll be without some of his biggest weapons next year. Graham-Kapowisn running back Micah Smith signed with Eastern Washington after leading the South Sound in rushing as a junior, with 228 carries for 2,028 yards. But injuries limited him to 101 carries for 622 yards and nine touchdowns this season.

That didn’t scare off EWU.

“He’s a three-down back and he will consistently impose his will on linebackers, defensive linemen and safeties when given the opportunity,” Best said. “He won a ton of games and was in the playoffs multiple times in high school. His huge smile is infectious and he’s great to be around.”

And both G-K and Lakes have two TNT All-Area players each who will be heading to Central Washington University as part of its huge signing class, Graham-Kapowsin with wide receiver Robert “Tre” Mason III and kicker Collin Manners, and Lakes with wide receiver Cody Roe and offensive lineman Hector Jasso III.

“Every opportunity we can get for kids we get excited about,” said 18-year Lakes coach Dave Miller. “But this one – this is one of the best senior classes I’ve had in terms of loyalty and hard work and chemistry. All of them played ball together in the sixth and seventh grade and grew up together.”

Alex Dangtuw is headed from Lakes to Weber State University in the Big Sky, where he committed to last week after being offered the Friday before. But that came despite breaking the fibula in his leg in the second week of his senior season.

“I was chasing my dream,” said Dangtuw, who was also considering offers from Idaho, Eastern Washington and Portland State. “I felt like it was home away from home. When I was down there it felt like Lakewood. Everything I love about Lakewood was there.”

Miller thought the injury might have deterred some Pac-12 schools. But Weber State coach Jay Hill has a history of developing defensive backs – having coached five who went on to the NFL.

“I think he’s a Division I corner that has a chance to be a great NFL Sunday corner,” Miller said. “I think he has that length and competitiveness and want-to.”

But it wasn’t just the players from the South Sound’s most successful programs securing their college futures.

Decatur finished 3-7 this past season, after four consecutive one-win seasons before that. Fourth-year coach Levi Suiaunoa stood proudly with his three players signing, including Navy-bound defensive lineman Quinzy Salu, who led the 4A NPSL Olympic with 18.5 tackles for losses and 8.5 sacks this season.

He’s another who said he has big-time football dreams.

“When I was in elementary school I always wanted to pursue going to the NFL,” said Salu, who is also the No. 2-ranked heavyweight wrestler in the state. He was considering offers from Navy, Air Force and Hawaii.

“In my 15 years of coaching, Quinzy is the hardest-working kid I’ve ever coached,” Suiaunoa said. “His motivation is internal. He didn’t look at the record, the score – he didn’t look at our success on the football field dictate how hard he worked.”

But all these signees had to work hard. Because only 6 percent of the 7.3 million high school student-athletes the NCAA tracked in a fact-sheet released this month moved on to a college in their respective sport. And just 6.8 percent of the 1.1 million high school football players advanced to college.

Keith Ross was asked how his program responds to losing their vaunted senior class.

“We’ll be back,” he said with a smile. “The next group is ready to go. Of course, we’re losing two of arguably the greatest players in Sumner history in the last 40 years. We’ll be a different team. But we’ll still be Sumner.”