Mississippi’s top football all-stars from last fall represented their high schools for the final time in the 60th annual Bernard Blackwell All-Star Classic at Mississippi College’s Robinson-Hale Stadium. The South stars rolled to a 30-14 victory.
The South scored twice in the first nine minutes of the contest and with the win took a 27-25-4 lead in the series.
Weather delayed the start of the game by about two hours, so the actual kickoff didn’t occur until a few minutes after 9 p.m. But the delay didn’t slow the offense of the South all-stars, who rolled out 235 yards in the first half. The North was limited to just 42 yards of offense.
Kendrick Hardy of Lawrence County, who ran six times for 58 yards, earned top offensive player honors. D’Iberville’s Mark Seymore carried for 95 yards of the South’s 323 total running yards.
Points for the North came late in the game when WaJavius Jones of Velma Jackson carried one in from 11 yards and Vicksburg’s Les Lemons hit Winona’s Harry Peoples for a score from 10 yards out in the final minute to make the score 24-14, South, which scored a 10-yard TD pass as the gun sounded for the final score.
Football: Alabama-Mississippi Classic to get more exposure
Come December, the top high school football players in Mississippi and Alabama will get a chance to show their talents in front of a bigger audience.
The annual All-Star Classic will be held Dec. 12 in Mobile, Ala.
Game management has been taken over by the Alabama-based Mishkin Group with Vic Knight, formerly of the Senior Bowl, in charge of the high school football event as executive director.
Knight expects to get the game back on live television this year, while making the week leading up to it a bigger event for recruiters and recruiting fans.
Football fans in the two states have considered the Classic their first post-high school look at the future of the Southeastern Conference. Knight says the 22nd annual classic will be positioned to be just after the state high school finals and just as the college bowl season is about to begin.
Baseball: Baldner returns to coaching at Lamar
An old coach is the new coach at Lamar School. Bill Baldner has been named the new baseball coach for the Mississippi Private School Association (MPSA) school.
Baldner was the coach of the Raiders in 1984 and 1985, directing the team to a MPSA Class 2A state championship in 1985, before moving on to East Mississippi Community College (EMCC).
At EMCC, Baldner led 12 playoff teams and won a regional title in 1986 during a 21-year career. He stepped away from coaching to go into administration at EMCC, but the lure of coaching has brought him back to Lamar. While coaching at Lamar, Baldner will continue teaching at EMCC.
Proctor begins term as head of NFHS
The executive director of the Mississippi High School Activities Association is starting his term as the president of the body that oversees all of the nation’s state high school activities associations.
Ennis Proctor will have a one-year term as the head of the National Federation of State High School Associations, or NFHS. His term started at the conclusion of the NFHS summer meetings last month in Chicago.
Proctor was a coach and school administrator in Florida and Mississippi before being named the MHSAA executive director in 1991. He has had positions on committees with the NFHS, including football rules and the Hall of Fame screening committee.
Notes
New Hope High School continues changing the face of its coaching staff, as Jeff Byrd becomes the new boys soccer and tennis coach at the Lowndes County school. Jeff Byrd should know the district well enough, as he is the brother of former NHHS boys basketball coach Robert Byrd. Jeff comes to New Hope from a coaching position at Kemper County.
