This Wednesday, High School athletes across the nation will sign letters of intent, featuring football and soccer players.
Of those thousands of athletes signing will be seven of the eleven defensive starters from the 2014 Lakeville North football team.
Linebacker Connor Melz will be one of the first players to sign after he announced his decision to play for the Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs this past Sunday. With the Mustangs, Melz will play primarily outside linebacker.
Fellow linebacker Dakota Toedter will also be attending a Division-II school as he announced just over a week ago that he would be taking his talents to the Northern University Wolfpack this fall.
Defensive back Stuart Hamann announced January 18 that he would attend St. Cloud State University where he will play defensive back, not kicker, even though he kicked for the Panthers the past two seasons.
Closing out the Division-II signings is defensive player Jordan Cardenas. The older of the two Cardenas brothers will sign to play football for the Augustana Vikings in the fall. While he played safety, corner, and even linebacker, Cardenas will stick to safety with the Vikings.
Jordan’s brother Jesse will be trading in his Panther red-and-white for Panther purple-and-gold when he signs to play for the University of Northern Iowa Panthers. The three-year varsity linebacker announced his decision on January 13.
Joining Jesse Cardenas is fellow multi-year varsity starting linebacker Tristyn Hanson. Hanson verbally committed late December that he would play collegiate football for the United States Air Force Academy. Hanson will be used primarily as an outside linebacker with the Falcons.
The earliest player who verbally committed of this senior class is defensive lineman Carl Engwall. Engwall announced this past summer that he would continue his football career at the University of North Dakota.
All seven players will sign their National Letters of Intent starting at 7:30 am in the Lakeville North commons on Wednesday Feburary 4.
Nick Kelly 