BY MATT VINES, DeSoto Parish Journal

STONEWALL – Three North DeSoto football players signed on the dotted line to continue their football careers in college Wednesday as part of National Signing Day.

Receiver Landry Wyatt will be a preferred walk-on at Louisiana Tech while the tandem of running back Trysten Hopper and offensive lineman Gage Caskey will join East Texas Baptist’s football team.

Wyatt led North DeSoto with 17 touchdown catches and ranked second with 44 total catches for 1,040 yards.

Caskey helped power an unusually balanced offensive attack that produced a pair of 1,000-yard receivers and a pair of 1,000-yard rushers. North DeSoto piled up more than 6,553 offensive yards in just 13 games (279 passing and 225 rushing per game). 

Hopper was one of those 1,000-yard rushers as the bell cow plowed ahead for 1,138 yards and 20 touchdowns. 

The Griffins posted an 11-2 record as the No. 1 seed in the Division II playoffs, reaching the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Opelousas.

Logansport offensive tackle lands with Kilgore Community College

Logansport offensive tackle Cratelyn Henderson (6-foot-4, 320 pounds) signed with Kilgore Community College on Wednesday.

Henderson bookended an experienced Tigers front that paved the way for a bevy of weapons to touch the ball.

The Tigers had as many as eight players who regularly got touches on the ground or through the air on a unit that averaged nearly 40 points per game. 

North DeSoto wrestler chooses Drury

Fresh off the school’s first state wrestling championship, North DeSoto’s Collin Bell decided he hasn’t made his final pin.

Bell will continue his wrestling career at Division II Drury University, a private school in Springfield, Missouri.

Bell, who will wrestle at 133 pounds at Drury, finished fifth in the 126-pound class in Division II at the LHSAA state championships this past weekend.