Football futures signed during ceremony at Enumclaw High

Hornets Jackson McCann, Jackson Nielsen, Connor Uhde and Fulton Gunderson all hope for a successful post-high school sports career.

A quartet of Enumclaw High football players formalized their athletic futures during a Feb. 5 signing ceremony at their school.

The EHS seniors inked their letters-of-intent on national signing day. Making their commitments official were Jackson McCann, Jackson Nielsen, Connor Uhde and Fulton Gunderson.

McCann will be heading over the Cascades to Ellensburg, where he will suit up for the Wildcats. He racked up a trio of all-North Puget Sound League honors following the fall campaign, chosen by league coaches as a first-team running back, first-team defensive back and first-team return specialist. He’s the first Hornet in recent years to land first-team accolades in all three categories.

At Central, he will join a Wildcat program that competes in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference at the NCAA Division II level. The GNAC had 11 member institutions found in Washington (four), Oregon (two), Alaska (two), Montana, Idaho and British Columbia.

Nielsen is headed to Valley City State University to play for the Vikings. The offensive lineman is coming off a senior season that concluded with first-team, all-NPSL honors.

Valley City is a member of the North Star Athletic Association and competes at the NAIA level. The North Star is a relatively new conference that began play in the 2013–14 school year. It counts eight member institutions in Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Uhde will depart for the College of Idaho and join the Coyotes roster.

He was a second-team, all-NPSL pick following his senior season as a Hornet.

The private College of Idaho is found in Caldwell and is NAIA member school. Its football team competes in the Frontier Conference, one of three colleges to participate in football only. Frontier schools are located in Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

Gunderson has signed with Dordt University, located in Sioux Center, Iowa. He said the college reached out to him following his junior season and stayed in touch. After taking a visit to the Iowa campus, Gunderson said, he felt it would be a good fit.

Dordt is an NAIA school that competes in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. The 12-member GPAC (all private schools) was founded in 1969 as the Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, became the Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference in 1992 and was renamed the Great Plains Athletic Conference in 2000.

As a senior, the Hornet kicker received second-team, all-NPSL honors.