Three Mustangs ink to play college ball

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Three Mustangs ink to play college ball

Van Wade

The Orange Leader

WEST ORANGE — To say that the West Orange-Stark senior football class had a tremendous amount of talent would be an understatement.

On Tuesday, that became even more clearer as three more Mustangs inked on the dotted line to play collegiate football, pushing the total of WO-S signings to seven this year.

Three all-district players signed Tuesday, all three of them all-district picks.

Center Darrin Gipson signed to play at Texas Lutheran in Seguin while linebackers Dustin Locks, who was the District 21-3A Defensive Player of the Year, and Justin Alexander will both hone their skills at McMurray Junior College in Abilene.

“All three of those guys were tremendous contributors to our football program,†said long-time Mustang head coach Dan Hooks. “Each one of them have started at least two years and Locks has started three. They each worked so hard to improve and they all had such terrific senior seasons.â€

In the last two seasons the three standouts helped the Mustangs to a 23-2 mark and two straight district titles.

Gipson was a solid leader in the offensive trenches for an offense that piled up 373.8 yards a game in a very balanced attack that featured a 2,000-yard passer in Andre Bevil, a running back in DePauldrick Garrett who zipped for 1,389 yards and two receivers in Earl Thomas and Jacoby Franks that combined for 1,580 yards receiving.

Defensively, the Mustangs posted their best numbers since they went to the Class 4A Division II state championship game in 2000 and Locks and Alexander were certainly key cogs. The Mustangs allowed just 177.8 yards per outing and outscored opponents 458-104 as WO-S allowed just 8.7 points per game.

Locks was in on a team-high 139 tackles and led the way as well in unassisted tackles with 78 and also had 16 tackles for losses.

Alexander wasn’t far behind with 133 tackles and led the squad with 83 assisted tackles and had six tackles for losses.â€

The other four Mustang standouts signed back on National Signing Day as Thomas inked with the University of Texas, Franks signed with Texas Tech University, Bevil inked with Navarro Junior College and defensive lineman Adrian Mims signed with Blinn Junior College.

“This was such a tremendous senior class,†said Hooks. “Not many schools around the state can say that they had seven kids sign, especially at the 3A level. It’s rare that you have this much talent in one class and they all deserve it because they’re all really good kids.â€