By Mike Rego
EAST PROVIDENCE — Former East Providence High School boys’ hoops standout Jarron “J.C.” Santos, before a large group of family and friends inside EPHS’s Ramos Gymnasium, penned his National Letter of Intent Thursday night, May 16, to continue his college basketball playing career at Virginia State University, located in Petersburg, Virginia.
The Trojans, who vie during the regular season in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, went 28-5 last year, losing in the second round of the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region Tournament, 82-80, to West Liberty University.
Santos, a 2016 EPHS grad, recently completed his studies at the Community College of Rhode Island, where he helped the Knights finish last season with an overall record of 28-4 and an appearance in the NJCAA Region XXI championship game. Santos, who’ll enter Virginia State as a junior with two years of college eligibility left, averaged 16.1 points per and was sixth nationally averaging 7.7 assists per game.
Of his time at CCRI under head coach Rick Harris, Santos said, “I learned how to play my game, but within a coach’s system.” Added Harris of Santos’ ethos and character, “I have never had a kid who wanted it or worked for it more.”
Santos, a 6-foot point guard, joins a Virginia State recruiting class that includes 6’3” small forward Caleb Butts, of Chesapeake, Virginia, and Jordan Hernandez, a 6’7” power forward from Richmond, Virginia. Santos and the Trojans open up their 2019-20 campaign with a preseason game against Duke at famed Cameron Indoor Stadium.