By Doug Ireland

Red River High School senior Elijah Harper was honored last Thursday night at the annual National Football Foundation S.M. McNaughton Chapter Scholar-Athlete Awards Dinner at East Ridge Country Club in Shreveport.

Ten 2022 senior prep football scholar-athletes, nominated by their head coaches, received accolades and scholarships during the event. The 10 were North DeSoto’s Hunter Addison, Green Oaks’ Fred Benjamin, Harper, Christian Jones from C.E. Byrd, West Monroe’s Blake Loring, Adam Parker of St. Mary’s in Natchitoches, Haughton’s Peyton Polk, Kam Robinson from Captain Shreve, Hayden Rolfe of Logansport and Northwood’s Mason Welch.

The event was attended by over 330 guests including college head coaches Brad Laird of Northwestern State and Sonny Cumbie of Louisiana Tech, along with National Football Foundation membership director Ron Dilatush.

Harper was an All-District performer for the RRHS Bulldogs, Harper played receiver and quarterback for a playoff team in each of his two seasons. He is also all-district in baseball as an outfielder.

With a 4.4 grade point average, Harper is first in his class of 100 seniors at RRHS. He is in the National Honor Society and made the Academic All-State team.

Harper has a high interest in a career as an engineer. He was accepted to enroll at Texas A&M but will first play football and earn a degree at Southern Arkansas University, then go to A&M for postgraduate studies. He hopes to eventually work at NASA. And he is very active in the student ministry at his church.

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