Nearly 20 players with Miss-Lou ties made their college choice official today as National Signing Day progressed.

Natchez High and Franklin County each led the way with eight players signing scholarships apiece, while several former Miss-Lou football players currently in the junior college ranks also put their decision on paper.

Division I commitments included Trinity Episcopal’s Stevan Ridley to LSU, Franklin County’s Mike Hunt to Missississippi State, Co-Lin’s Jasper O’Quinn (formerly of Franklin County) to Mississippi State, Southwest Mississippi’s Alvin Fosselman to Southern University and Natchez High’s Jason Bruce and Edward Johnson to Alcorn State.

Receptions honoring the players were held throughout the area Wednesday, and at Natchez High, head coach Lance Reed was happy to see so many of his players getting the recognition they deserve.

“(The coaching staff is) definitely very proud,” Reed said. “These kids have worked very hard to get to where they are, and they deserve what they’re getting. Hopefully they’ll continue to work hard to accomplish their goals they’ve set for themselves.”

Bruce, who still must make the minimum ACT score to gain admittance to Alcorn, said he is looking forward to the challenge.

“The next (ACT test) I take I should make it,” the Natchez High quarterback said. “I’m just ready to work coming in as a freshman. I want to show I can come in and compete and show leadership on the team.”

Keathon Ransom and Derrick McGee are both heading to Henderson State in Arkadelphia, Ark., while Desmond Smoot is going to cross-town rival Ouachita Baptist. Broderick Morgan and Chad Smith will each go to East Mississippi Community College, while Latarus Frazier will go to Co-Lin.

Hunt, meanwhile, was spending Wednesday getting ready to head to the SEC and Mississippi State, and said his trip to Starkville had made it an easy choice.

“The atmosphere was great,” Hunt said. “I like it up there, I bonded with the players when I visited up there.”

The star cornerback, who committed to the Bulldogs in June and then helped lead Franklin County to its first state football championship in December, said he hoped to carry that momentum into college.

“I just want to continue what I started back here,” he said. “I want to carry that winning feeling here.”

Ridley and his family hosted a reception in Trinity’s library Wednesday night, and many of his family, friends, teammates and coaches heaped praise on the star running back who rushed for 3,089 yards this season.

“Anybody using good judgment would put Stevan Ridley as one of the top two players ever in this town,” Trinity head coach David King said. “There may have been a better passer or a better runner, but nobody has done it all better than Stevan Ridley.”

Jeremy Waldrop, who has known Ridley since they began playing Dixie Youth baseball at age 6, said Ridley has been a good friend and teammate.

“When we were little, he was just another guy on the field or the diamond,” Waldrop said. “As we got older I started to realize, this guy is pretty good. He has never been cocky, he has never had an ego. He is real modest.”

Ridley said he had plenty of goals for his time in Baton Rouge.

“My goal is to put Natchez and Trinity Episcopal on the map,” he said. “Being able to play at LSU has been my biggest accomplishment. The hardest part is going to be leaving a family and learning new things.”

In addition to Hunt at Franklin County, seven other Bulldogs signed scholarships to junior colleges. Gary Rogers, Greg Hunt, Alvin Hunt and Preston Griffith are all heading to Copiah-Lincoln Community College; Brandon Collins and Cable McMinn signed with East Mississippi Community College; and Kane Carlock committed to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

Franklin County head coach Grady McCluskey said he was happy to have a program strong enough to support so many strong players.

“Whenever you can get a free education paid for that’s a plus,” McCluskey said. “It takes players to win championships. We had eight of our 12 seniors sign college scholarships, and we’d like to keep it that way. It kind of goes hand in hand. If you’re winning, you’ll get kids signed, and if you’re getting kids signed you’re probably winning.”