Two former Bainbridge High School Bearcats, safeties Rohan Gaines and Shawn Samuels, are playing well in college defensive secondaries this season.

In eight games as a redshirt freshman with the the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, Gaines, who started spring practice ranked No. 2 at free safety and worked his way up to No. 1 at the end of drills, is second on the team, with 55 tackles — 32 solo and 23 assisted.

He was second on the team in tackles against Louisiana-Monroe with 10 — five solo  and  five assisted — and led the team in tackles against Alabama, with 11 — eight solo and three assisted.

Gaines, the son of Maurice and Loretta Gaines, was a safety on coach Ed Pilcher’s Bearcats football team and a guard on coach Rickey McCullough’s Bearcats basketball. He was named second-team All-Region 1-AAAA in both sports.

In track, he participated in the long jump for coach Larry Cosby’s Region 1-AAAA champion Bearcats, and was a member of the 4-by-100-meter relay team.

At Arkansas, he was second on the team in tackles against both Texas A&M and Ole Miss. He had seven tackles against Texas A&M — five solo and two assisted — and nine tackles against Ole Miss — five solo and four assisted.

Samuels, the son of the late Deloise Samuels and Stevie Connell, and a redshirt freshman strong safety for Marshall, has three tackles in five games — two unassisted and one assisted.

Samuels was a safety and punt/kick returner for Pilcher’s Bearcats football team, a sprinter for Cosby’s 2010 State Class AAAA champion Bearcats track team and a center for McCullough’s Region 1-AAAA champion Bearcats basketball team.

As a Bearcats senior in 2010, Samuels, who made The Albany Herald’s All-Area team, as well as the All-Region 1-AAAA team, had 36 tackles, one interception and four pass breakups.