Missouri Southern head football coach Bart Tatum has announced the addition of 43 high school players to his 2009 spring recruiting class.

This year’s class includes 23 athletes from the state of Missouri, 12 from Texas, five from Arkansas, two from Oklahoma and one from Illinois.

"We tried for a comprehensive class," said Tatum when asked about the breakdown of positions. "There wasn’t one position we left out this year. We covered it all."

Signing day can be a long and tiresome day for some coaches, but Tatum said everything went as planned.

"It’s a busy day, no doubt, but certainly not nerve wracking," he said. "Everything went exactly as scripted today. Every person we expected to hear from, we heard from today.

"These young men are good players, they’ve had successful seasons and have had outstanding coaches. We’re thrilled to have all 43 young men sign with us today. We won some battles and we lost some battles, but I think we won our share. We’re very happy with this group of guys we have."