By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–The Helena High School cafeteria was packed the night of Wednesday, Feb. 3, as four Helena High School seniors inked their football National Letter of Intents in a National Signing Day ceremony held at the school.

Family, friends, teammates, coaches and classmates all filled the cafeteria to celebrate the accomplishments of the four seniors who will continue their academic and athletic careers in college.

“These guys are great examples of what we want in our players, not just great athletes but great young men,” said Helena head football coach Watt Parker. “Guys we know as coaches we can depend on as leaders. Guys that Mrs. Brand and Mr. Butts know they can depend on as leaders, guys that we know and I feel like are going to represent themselves, their families, this school, this community anywhere they go in this world.”

The four Helena Huskies players who signed football scholarships were offensive lineman Brody Rhodes to the University of West Alabama, defensive lineman Brett Granger to Samford University, quarterback Diondre Sackreiter to Southern Nazarene University and wide receiver Phildon Dublin to Delta State University.

The four players all took time to thank their families, coaches, mentors and the opportunities they were given to continue playing football on the collegiate level.

“I just want to thank God first of all for blessing this moment,” said Sackreiter. “On Sept. 25, when I tore my LCL, after that every single day I prayed to God hoping that he’d bless me with an offer but a month later, he blessed me with two in one night and that was probably one of the best moments of my life.”

Dublin took time to thank numerous people including his teammates, while holding back emotion in the special moment.

“I want to thank God for blessing me with this opportunity to play for Delta State,” said Dublin. “This is still unreal for me and I just want to thank the Helena community for supporting all of us and I’m blessed to have these three as my teammates. They’re great people and even better teammates.”

Both Granger and Rhodes echoed much of what Dublin and Sackreiter said by thanking those who helped them on their journey to signing a scholarship.

Parker reiterated how the four seniors exhibited high character along with great athletic skill.

“One important thing that I told every coach that I had an opportunity to speak about any of the players in our program is ‘Coach you’re going to get a great athlete, but you’re going to get a thousand times better young man in your program,’” said Parker.