By Van Wade
The Orange Leader

Former West Orange-Stark football standout and University of Alabama All- American safety Deionte Thompson was selected as the first pick in the fifth round of the NFL Draft Saturday by the Arizona Cardinals.

Thompson worked his way into the rotation on defense and started the final two games of the 2017 season before securing the starting safety spot last fall to lead the Tide secondary.

He was selected as a consensus first team All-America honoree after earning the accolades from the Associated Press, The Sporting News and the AFCA. He was second team All-America selection by Walter Camp and the FWAA. Thompson also received first team All-America recognition by Sports Illustrated. He earned All-SEC first team accolades from the conference coaches and second team recognition by the Associated Press.

He forced a team-high four fumbles to tie for second all-time on the Alabama single-season list in that category, ranked second on UA in tackles with 79 stops, including a team-high 48 solo stops, added 3.5 tackles for loss (minus-7 yards).

Thompson arrived at Alabama in January of 2015 as one of the top safety prospects in the nation.

He participated in the Under Armour All-America Game and Nike’s “The Opening. He was ranked as the No. 3 safety nationally by ESPN and rated 65th in the final ESPN300. Rivals.com ranked him as the No. 3 safety, No. 4 player in Texas and No. 44 player nationally.

In high school he was a two-way impact player at West Orange-Stark High School for head coach Cornel Thompson. During his senior campaign at WOS he recorded five interceptions with 120 return yards and two touchdowns and at receiver, caught 37 passes for 692 yards and four more He finished with 15 career interceptions.

Thompson eventually chose chose Alabama over Florida State, LSU, Stanford, Texas, Texas A&M and USC.