Four standout seniors from last fall’s White River High football team put pen to paper recently and locked in their collegiate careers.
While three will be heading off to different time zones, one will remain in the South Sound region.
Signing letters of intent in their school library during an after-school ceremony were Wyatt Davis, who will suit up for Pacific Lutheran University; Payne Plaster, Presentation College; Cole Cashman, Sterling College; and Ryan Stapleton, College of Wooster.
Davis, who checked in at 6 feet, 5 inches and 290 pounds, was a second team all-South Puget Sound League 2A offensive lineman during his final year in Hornet pads.
He heads to the Parkland campus where the Lutes participate in the NCAA Division III Northwest Conference. The nine-team NWC includes four schools from Washington: PLU, the University of Puget Sound, Whitman College (a non-football member) and Whitworth University; also in the NWC lineup are Oregon’s Lewis and Clark College, Linfield University, George Fox University, Pacific University and Willamette University.
During the most recent season, PLU went 4-5 overall and 3-4 in conference play.
Plaster will leave Buckley for Presentation College, a private institution of about 800 students with its primary campus in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
During his four years with the Hornet varsity Plaster climbed into the school record books in both offensive and defensive categories. He capped his high school career by participating in the annual Blue-Grey All-American Bowl, a showcase for seniors in Dallas, Texas.
He will be among a group hoping to reverse the fortunes of the Saints, who last year posted a record of 0-8 in league play and 0-11 overall.
The Saints compete at the NAIA level and are members of the eight-team North Star Athletic Association. Three member schools are found in North Dakota (Dickenson State University, Mayville State University and Valley City State University) and two are in South Dakota (Presentation and Dakota State University), along with Bellevue University in Nebraska, Vitterbo University in Wisconsin and Waldorf University in Iowa.
Another Hornet lineman headed to the college ranks is Stapleton, who will take his talents to the College of Wooster.
Located in Wooster, Ohio, about 50 miles from Cleveland, the college is a private, independent institution of about 2,000 undergraduates.
The Fighting Scots are charter members of the North Coast Athletic Conference, founded in 1983.
The NCAC consists of 10 private colleges and universities spread throughout Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania — Allegheny College, Denison University, DePauw University, Hiram College, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Wabash College, and Wittenberg University, along with The College of Wooster.
After receiving all-league honorable mention during his senior season at White River, Stapleton will join a Wooster football team that finished 5-4 in conference play last fall and was 6-4 overall.
Cashman is headed to Sterling College, a private institution in Sterling, Kansas. Its athletic programs are known as the Warriors and compete at the NAIA level as part of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference.
The KCAC has 13 members with 10 found in Kansas, plus Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska. All are private institutions.
Cashman received SPSL 2A honorable mention as a Hornet senior and heads to a team that finished .500 last fall (5-5 in conference play and 6-6 overall). The Warriors are in a transition phase with the resignation of coach Chase Hansen who spent four years as head coach, leaving with a record of 18-23.
