Senior Twins Commit to Norfolk State

(Photo Courtesy of Ms. Constance Weaver)

Seniors Carleton and Manny Thomas will be continuing their academic and athletic journey at Norfolk State University for the next four years.

Usually when kids go off to college, they leave their families and only get to see them during certain breaks, but this isn't the case for Carleton and Manny. They both get to spend another four years together at Norfolk State. Their mom Ms. Constance Weaver couldn’t be happier.

“ I’m just very happy and excited that they are both going to number one a school that they really wanted to attend. number two that it is an HBCU, which is an experience that they wanted to have, number three I’m just happy that they’ve reached this goal that they were striving for and that the work that they put into it, and what people are seeing and believing what they can accomplish,” Weaver says.

The Thomas twins played football all four year at Blake. Carleton played running back and linebacker, and Manny played wide receiver and defensive back. They both had great senior seasons. Carleton led the team in rushing with 849 yards and 11 touchdowns. Manny had 24 tackles and five receptions for 69 yards, including a spectacular 33 yard catch from quarterback Terrill Simms against Seneca Valley High School.

Carleton and Manny have not just been great performing on the field,. They also have been great leaders on and off the field as well. Football Coach Deshawn Anderson believes that this trait will carry on into their college careers. “I think that they are motivated and that they are gonna put in hard work. The same thing I tell all coaches, you are going to get two young men who are coming into this program academically sound and they will be great leaders for your kids once they get into their programs. I know that they are going to do well,” Anderson said.

Coach Anderson knows a lot about what it takes to be successful at Norfolk State because it is his alma mater. The Thomas’s are going to follow Anderson’s footsteps by going to Norfolk. When asked if Anderson had any impact Manny said “I guess that I would say that I did the way I want to follow his footsteps because the man he is today and he is into engineering and I’m into engineering as well. He played there and I’ll be playing there. I guess that he did have some type of influence,”

Carleton added “Anderson is an alumni there and he got into contact with some of the coaches and I kind of wanted to follow some of the same footsteps there because I think he had a big impact on there as a player and he was a big time player down there and I wanted to see myself do the same thing down there.“

The college application and decision making process is not easy. Both Thomas’s had many colleges to choose from, making the decision a little difficult. Carleton and Manny were unsure if they were going to be together another four years.

“We didn’t really know that we were gonna go to the same college. We wanted to go to the same college and then that’s when senior year hit and we had different colleges looking at us, but we really didn’t think that we were going to go to the same college, but then this ended up happening,” Carleton said.

“At times we didn’t,but then sometimes we did. We did sometimes think that we could go to college together so we could save some money for our mom, so money it’s less if you have family members that are at the same college, so we decided it was the best situation for our mom,” Manny added on their college decision to stay together.

Both Carleton and Manny got accepted to Norfolk State University. Carleton is a candidate and will be receiving the Provost Scholarship for academics and Manny is a candidate for and has received the Presidential Scholarship award. Both awards are administered by Norfolk State. After their Hudl videos were reviewed by the football coaches at Norfolk, Carleton and Manny were contacted and offered positions on the football team as "Recruited Walk-Ons". They will both be playing for the Spartans and receiving athletic scholarships in their Sophomore years. Carleton plans on majoring in Secondary Education, with an ultimate goal of being a middle school or high school English teacher. Manny plans to major in Electrical Engineering

Good luck to both Carleton and Manny. We are looking forward to seeing your future success on and off the field.