It&rsquo;s 2 minutes before kickoff at the Class 1 District 7 matchup when a University Academy assistant coach searches the bleachers for somebody to help with the chain gang. And at this moment, that&rsquo;s a hard task because the combined size of the UA spirit squad and marching band outnumbers the Gryphon fans in the stands. </p><p> The opposing Lone Jack head coach is wearing a brown Carhartt coat, and his entire traveling team can fit inside one bus. You may think that this atmosphere just screams &ldquo;small-class football,&rdquo; but you would never guess that two of the best high school football players in Missouri can be found right here.</p><p> Yes, two.</p><p> Two University Academy seniors &mdash; 5-foot-11, 170-pound quarterback/cornerback Darrenn White and 6-3, 230-pound linebacker Auston LaBlance &mdash; fly so low under the radar that their names are still commonly misspelled, even in their own school newsletters.</p><p> But if you put any weight into Rivals.com rankings and those golden stars that follow names, then it&rsquo;s time to meet these elite players. Just remember, that&rsquo;s two &ldquo;N&rsquo;s&rdquo; in Darrenn.</p><p> &ldquo;People (have) started noticing that, &lsquo;Hey, these kids can really play!&rsquo; &rdquo; Gryphons coach Damon Paul said. &ldquo;Coming from a small school, a lot of times &mdash; cause we&rsquo;re a (Class 1) school &mdash; they feel like sometimes you&rsquo;re not playing the same level of competition. &hellip; But they can play. These two guys are two of the best players in our state right now.&rdquo;</p><p> Here&rsquo;s what you need to know about White: He&rsquo;s the quiet one of the pair, holds a 3.06 grade-point average, and he&rsquo;s a three-star athlete who gave an oral commitment early to Division I Wyoming because he didn&rsquo;t want to bother with the stress of recruiting.</p><p> And here&rsquo;s the scoop on LaBlance: He&rsquo;s called the religious one &mdash; who leads the team prayer &mdash; keeps a messy locker and he&rsquo;s a two-star kid with one Division I offer already.</p><p> So just how did two players from a seventh-year Class 1 program land in the Rivals&rsquo; Missouri preseason top-30 prospects list? The right connections, of course.</p><p>Last spring, White&rsquo;s private quarterback coach helped him and LaBlance get invited to a national all-star tournament. The players mixed right in with other Missouri blue-chippers such as Blue Springs&rsquo; Keeston Terry, Liberty&rsquo;s Marcus Lucas and MU quarterback Blaine Gabbert&rsquo;s little brother, Tyler Gabbert.</p><p> During one particular game when White, playing corner, held his own against Kyle Prater &mdash; the Hillside (Ill.) Proviso West wide receiver who is the No. 2 nationally ranked prospect &mdash; certainly the right folks noticed. The same for LaBlance, who intercepted a pass during team Missouri&rsquo;s championship game.</p><p> The next week, the UA boys appeared on Rivals.com. LaBlance even got an invitation to participate in a USC combine. </p><p> &ldquo;In the summer we played with all those guys on the all-star teams, and I think the difference between them and us is we&rsquo;re Class 1 and they&rsquo;re Class 5,&rdquo; LaBlance said. &ldquo;But we competed with them. We did the same work.&rdquo;</p><p> Back to Friday night, when the Gryphons escaped Lone Jack 20-19. White contributed all three touchdowns, and LaBlance made a difference defensively even when Lone Jack ran many plays away from him. So in spite of playing in front of a crowd that couldn&rsquo;t even fill a gymnasium, LaBlance and White are proving they are more than just small-school athletes.</p><p> &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been telling people,&rdquo; Paul said. &ldquo;Our two boys can play.&rdquo;