Preseason Blitz: North DeSoto football looking to build on baseball momentum

STONEWALL, LA (KTAL/KMSS) – In the last three seasons, North DeSoto football has been in the quarterfinals, semifinals, even the finals of the state championship game, but this senior class has yet to taste a football title. That doesn’t mean they don’t know how to get it done.

“Being able to carry on that success from baseball over to football, we know what it takes now,” senior quarterback Luke Delafield said.

After winning a baseball state championship just a few months ago, many members of the North DeSoto football team knows what it takes to win it all.

“It is a lot of hard work, a lot of time spent off the field and with each other, fellowship and film, whatever we got to do,” senior Porter Doyal said.

They’re using everything they learned on the road to state in baseball and applying it to football.

“Baseball is a game of adversity. You’re gonna fail 70% of the time and you’re in the hall of fame, right? So just being able to handle adversity in baseball helps you handle adversity in football,” Delafield said.

It’s something that head coach Dennis Dunn appreciates as well.

“I think that mindset and what they will bring to the table for us as a football team will certainly pay dividends for us as well,” Dunn said.

Despite losing some key players from last season, the Griffins still have their sights set deep into December.

“People are kind of doubting us because we’ve lost a lot last year, but they’ll see. We’re coming,” Delafield said.

But many other important players are returning, including Doyal on the defensive side, Delafield, and running back Kenny Thomas. Delafield and Thomas have a special bond.

“Off field we can talk about football and other things of that nature, but then on the field it just makes it that much easier to communicate and be like, hey, do this on this play,” Thomas said.

While the pair are responsible for a lot of Griffin touchdowns, their impact goes beyond talent on the field.

“Even with seconds to go and you’re down two touchdowns, in Luke’s mind we’re winning and that’s what you’d love to have at that position,” Dunn said. “That’s contagious, that spills over into the whole team and Kenny’s the same way.”

The leaders have been instilling belief into the younger team, all that’s left is to prove it.

“We’re gonna win state most by believing because if you don’t believe you can do it, then you’re probably not gonna do it,” Thomas said. “First we got to believe we can win state and then just working that much harder every day because we worked so hard the past three years and came up short, so we got to work that much harder.”

North DeSoto begins its season on September 5 at Union Parrish.