School Spotlight: Grant High School (Dry Prong, LA)

Grant High School has been brewing a program for a long time, and this offseason, it seems to have found its identity.

That’s an important thing to have for a football program that had not been the focal point of the high school for most of Grant’s history That’s changed in the few years since alumnus Jarvous Felton’s return to the school, where he coached as the Defensive Coordinator for four seasons before becoming their Head Coach in 2023. Now, the football team is feeling the full support of the community behind them.

The support and community buy in has been amazing. Grant hasn’t been known as a football school, but in the last 5-6 years, we have gained a tremendous buzz knowing our fans and community have paved the way for football to make its way into the spotlight. The school has gained a lot of great recognition for football and for athletics as a whole.

Grant Head Coach Jarvous Felton

Things have been growing around the football team for a few years, but this offseason brought a whole new chapter of their journey. Coach Felton had the whole team read a book together called “The Program”, and used many teambuilding (or, I suppose, program building) exercises from it. The most important of these saw the kids boil the standards they want to set for the team down to three words: commitment, accountability, and toughness. They then defined the three terms to clarify exactly what the program is striving to be.

We have truly defined our standard and team as a program. I made the players define them – what do commitment, accountability, and toughness mean to them? We broke those down, and talked about how they all tie together and what can happen if you live by these standards. It has helped our kids. This is the most focused and dialed in I’ve seen these kids in a long time. Teachers are coming to us bragging about our kids.

Grant Head Coach Jarvous Felton

When people outside of the locker room are responding to the culture that is being set by the football team, a lot of good is being done. That is happening because the kids are actually holding themselves and each other to act in a mature way in all facets of life, both on and off the field. Whether it is de-escalating conflicts that could have led to fights, or maintaining a 90% attendance rate in summer workouts, there are clear changes happening around the Grant football program.

It goes down to our kids. If a kid sees someone slacking off in the hallway or going off doing something they shouldn’t be doing, it’s up to the kid to be kind and hold them accountable and tell them you aren’t going to do that.

Grant Head Coach Jarvous Felton

As promising as the future of Grant High School may seem, there are still plenty of questions to answer going into this season. Their graduating class from last year included four Gridiron Football All-Americans, all on defense. That’s an insane amount of talent and leadership to lose on one side of the ball in one offseason, but this team is left unphased by need to replace it. There seem to be plenty of players ready to step in and take their place, embracing the new opportunities for playing time and leadership that await.

Those guys were vocal and they set the standard we are setting as a team. Now we are having new players come up and set into those roles.

Grant Head Coach Jarvous Felton

Coach Felton mentioned just a few of the many players to watch out for at Grant going into 2025.

There are two players vying to be the starting signal caller, 2028 QB Gage Hossieni and 2027 QB/WR Myles Futrell. Myles started at QB for the team last year, but will be hard to keep off the field as their best WR, meaning Gage will get his shot. Hossieni has participated in a number of Gridiron Football Elite Camps over the years, so we are looking forward to him getting his chance to start throughout the season.

Whoever is playing at QB will have a litany of weapons to throw to, as many faces rotate in between playing WR and other positions (including Futrell at QB of course). Most notably is 2027 WR Aymaud Sykes, who just earned a scholarship offer to Grambling after running a 4.4 40 yard dash at one of their recent camps, and will be playing DB as well.

2028 WR Shawn Williams will also play DB for the team and, despite his relatively small size (5’9″ 160 lbs), he plays with fiery intensity and physicality.

2027 WR Keith McKinney is the younger brother to 2024 Gridrion Football All-American Isaiah McKinney, and the football ability runs tight in the family. McKinney will play both DB and RB as well as receiver for the team.

Finally among the offensive weapons is 2026 TE Jaiden Moore, who will also be a valuable pass catching weapon for the team, and he also got on colleges’ radars after a great Grambling camp.

On the offensive line, the big star is senior Madden Blalock. He’s a physical RT standing at 6’2″ 280 lbs, the biggest player on the line. 2026 OL/DL Dionte Pennington plays both ways for Grant but will start at RT for them this year, bringing some level of leadership to the team. Also taking a big leadership role is 2026 OL Owen Stokes, who will play RG. 2026 OL Caleb Firment broke out in his junior year and will get one last chance to dominate in his senior season. Finally, 2028 OL Bently Sibley started getting playing time at center last season as a freshman, so the sky is the limit for him as his career continues.

Leading the defense is 2028 RB/LB Matthew Cooper, who almost matched Gridiron Football All-American Landon Fredieu in tackles last year, notching 64 in total despite his youth. Hopefully that is just the start of a very promising career. Alongside him is senior leader LB/DB Braeden Sloane, who plays a hybrid role both in coverage as a nickel corner and coming off the line of scrimmage as an OLB, logging 51 total tackles and 7 TFLs last season. Their presence in the middle of the defense will be the anchor for a really good unit that is trying to replace so much.

The biggest prospect on the defense is 2026 DL Jake Glass, who is getting a lot of attention due to his combination of quickness and stature (6’4″ 245 lbs). He has played all over the field on both sides in the past, but he might just be unstoppable at defensive end.