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From left is Ferriday High School Head Coach Walter Johnson, senior scholar Lionel Scott Jr. and Ben Brown (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

From left is Cathedral Head Coach Josh Loy, senior scholar Frederick Armarion Lane and Ben Brown (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

From left is senior scholar Briasen Layton McCraney of Vidalia High School, Ben Brown and Viking Coach Joshua West (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

From left is Natchez High School Coach Steve Davis, second runner-up Dajuan Ty’reck Culbert of Natchez Early College and Ben Brown. (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

Next runner-up Landry Thomas Freeman of Delta Charter School with Ben Brown and DCS Coach Blake Wheeler. (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

First place scholar Aiden Grant Roché accepts his award and $3,000 scholarship with Ben Brown of the New England Patriots and Adams County Christian School Defensive Coordinator Stanley Smith. (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

Ben Brown with Eileen Maher. Maher accepts the Distinguished American Award on behalf of her late husband Mark LaFrancis (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

Contributor to Amateur Football Award recipient Tom Graning and Ben Brown. (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

Junior High Scholar from Natchez Middle School Daylon Berry (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

Junior High Scholar from Vidalia Junior High Enrique M. Garza (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

Junior High Scholar from Cathedral Middle School Grayson Tosspon (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

Junior High Scholar from Adams County Christian School Robert Peyton Conerly (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

Junior High Scholar from Ferriday Junior High School Sherman Hawkins (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

Junior High Scholar from Delta Charter School Tayton Jaxon Fife (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

NATCHEZ — The Miss Lou Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame’s 42nd Annual Scholastic Awards Banquet on Tuesday evening recognized scholar-athletes from schools throughout the Miss-Lou and awarded the six senior scholars a total of $10,000 in scholarships.

A packed house of around 200 people attended the banquet Tuesday at the Father David O’Connor Family Life Center.

The senior athletes are chosen by each school’s head coach with guidance from their school’s guidance councilors based on their school and community involvement and their academic and athletic achievements. The seniors are then ranked by Dr. Pernell Goodwin, Vice President of Co-Lin Natchez, and his selection committee.

The top senior scholar received a $3,000 scholarship and the first and second runners-up received $2,250 and $1,750, respectively. The remaining three scholars each received $1,000.

This year, the first-place recipient of the $3,000 scholarship is Aiden Grant Roche of Adams County Christian School. Roche, the son of Sally and Andre Roche, plays tight end on offense and defensive end on defense for the ACCS Rebels. He maintains a perfect 4.0 grade point average and scored a 30 on his ACT — where the highest possible score is a 36.

Roche is also a member of the National Honor Society, the BETA club, and the Key Club and is the vice president of the ACCS student council. Outside of school, he is an active member of the Crosspoint Church Youth Group and routinely volunteers at the Natchez Stewpot. He is ranked 7th in his class of 49 students.

The next runner-up is Landry Thomas Freeman, the son of Leia and Clay Freeman. Freeman plays both guard and tackle on the offensive end and end or tackle on defense for the Delta Charter School Storm. His grade point average is 4.109 and he scored a 26 on his ACT. Freeman is also a member of the BETA Club and the Vex IQ Team, which won the district Robotics Competition for two years. Athletically, he made All-District in his 11th and 12th grade years and also plays soccer, where he won the Coach’s Award. Freeman has volunteered in the Senior Adult Health Fair, as a buddy escort in the Brightest Stars Ball, to pick caladium bulbs for the Vidalia Women’s Club, and has assisted with cleaning flower beds at the Vidalia Post Office. Freeman is ranked 1st in his class of 35 students.

The third runner-up is Dajuan Ty’rek Culbert of Natchez Early College. Culbert, the son of Verressia Chatman and Lajuan Culbert, plays the right wing on offense and defensive back on defense for the Natchez High School Bulldogs. He is a first-team All-Region 3-5A Defensive Back and is the NHS team captain. He also won the “Mr. Hustle Award” and the “Top Defensive Back Award” for NHS. Academically, Culbert maintains a 4.06 grade point average and scored a 19 on his ACT. He is a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and is an active member of Harvest Baptist Church in Ferriday, Louisiana.

The senior recipients of the three $1,000 scholarships are Briasen Layton McCraney of Vidalia High School, Linel Scott Jr. of Ferriday High School, and Frederick Armarion Lane of Cathedral High School.

The junior high and middle school scholar-athletes are Robert Peyton Conerly of Adams County Christian School, Grayson Ellis Tosspon of Cathedral Middle School, Tayton Jaxon Fife of Delta Charter School, Sherman Hawkins of Ferriday Junior High, Daylon Berry of Natchez Middle School, and Enrique M. Garza of Vidalia Junior High.

Additionally, the foundation recognized the recipient of the Contributions to Amateur Football Award Tom Graning and the recipient of the Distinguished American Award given posthumously to G. Mark LaFrancis.

GRANING

Tom Graning was born in Natchez to the late Al and Kelly Junkin-Graning, one of six siblings in an athletic household. Al Graning was a Southeastern Conference Football Official for 28 years and one of the founders of the Miss-Lou Chapter of the National Football Foundation. He also won the Contributions to Amateur Football Award in 1984. Kelly Graning was also a standout athlete at St. Joseph Catholic High School.

Tom Graning was a standout athlete and fifth-generation graduate of Cathedral High School in 1984. He was also a top swimmer for the Natchez Swim Association. He played football his freshman year before graduating from Delta State University in 1988 with a degree in General Business.

After graduation, he went to work full-time with his father and brother, Ward at the Graning Oil Company. Tom and Ward bought the Exxon station on the corner of Highway 61 and Highland Boulevard in 1990 and rebranded it as Go Mart in 2000, which Tom continues to operate with his son, Wright Graning, today after Ward passed away unexpectedly in 2019.

Tom and his siblings also operate Wardo’s Po-Boys restaurant, created in Ward’s honor.

Tom was a football coach at Cathedral from 1998 to 2019, helping lead Cathedral to its first State Championship in 2014. He also coached basketball from 1998 to 2004.

Lately, he takes care of and maintains the Ken Beesley football field at D’Evereux Stadium for Cathedral High School, as well as the baseball field at Liberty Park.

Tom is a member of the National Football Foundation, Kappa Sigma fraternity, Santa Claus Committee, Krewe of Killarney where he was named St. Patrick in 2023, Tiger Athletic Foundation, Cathedral C-Club and a Board member for the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association. Tom was also named Man of the Year by the Natchez Adams County Chamber of Commerce in 2022.

His son Thomas, an award-winning photojournalist who worked for the University of Mississippi and as a volunteer firefighter and EMT, is now in medical school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wright and his wife Kaylee live in Natchez, where Kaylee is a teacher at Cathedral School. In addition to helping Tom with the business, Wright is an assistant football and baseball coach at Cathedral.

LAFRANCIS

LaFrancis, who died June 7, 2024, after a long battle with cancer, was an established writer, photographer, and filmmaker. In his 33 years as a journalist, 10 years as a filmmaker, and 15 years as a teacher of film and photography, he has won many local, state, and national writing awards. He was selected as the 2018 Mississippi Scholar by the Mississippi Humanities Council for his extensive work as an oral historian and filmmaker.

As an author of prose, poetry, and oral history LaFrancis’ signature works include The Parchman Ordeal—1965 and the “In Their Boots” trilogy inspired by soldier’s stories.

LaFranis was also the founder and president of both New Dawn Video Productions and M&M Video Productions and served as director, executive producer, writer, and editor, having created the films “The Parchman Ordeal” and “Women of the Struggle.”

A board member of the Mississippi Alliance for Arts in Education, he personally taught both students and teachers in the arts of photography and filmmaking as well as offered online workshops. He was also a Veteran of the armed forces, having served for 23 years in the United States Air Force, Air Force National Guard, and Air Force Reserves and having earned two Air Force Commendation Medals.

He continued his service as the founder and president of Home with Heroes Foundation, Inc., a private non-profit organization dedicated to helping veterans and their families. Receiving the award on his behalf on Tuesday was his wife, Eileen Maher.

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