Excerpts from Players Get Last Chance to Shine
By Jason Smith (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Saturday, December 13, 2008
AutoZone Liberty Bowl High School All-Star game
“We’re hoping from this that some young men who thought they would probably be left out of the scholarship race will get a chance to further their education and do some great things,” Red Team coach Stan Collins said.
Collins, who spent 18 seasons as Whitehaven’s head coach from 1979-96, will coach a Red Team featuring standouts from Whitehaven, Fairley, Mitchell, MUS and Sheffield, including the Knights’ Class 3A Mr. Football finalist, DeMario Carter, the area’s leading rusher this season with 2,085 yards.
All 80 players participated Friday in a luncheon at Downtown’s Ground Zero Blues Club in which each player received his jersey for today’s game.
Fairley defensive tackle Jimmy Robinson and Melrose quarterback Tromarcus Toney were awarded the event’s Harris Jones Courage Award, an award voted on by their all-star teammates.
Jones, a former quarterback at Milan High, was diagnosed with leukemia in 1997 after he signed with Murray State.
“For all these special athletes to pick me, it meant a lot to me,” Robinson said. “It’s really been a good week (of practice). There were some people I didn’t know and some people I did. The running back from Houston (Nick Nelms) has really impressed me. He’s a great athlete, and I didn’t know anything about him.”
“It’s going to be a good game because there’s a lot of talent,” he said. “Whoever doesn’t make mistakes should come out on top.”
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Excerpts from Defense shines in Liberty Bowl All-Star Game
By Jason Smith (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Red 14, Blue 0
Five Fairley players were key to the Red squad victory in Saturday:
4 Devin Stark WR/QB
8 Kendrick Danner DB
9 Martavius Neloms WR/DB
44 Jimmy Robinson DL
64 Wayne Lauderdale OL/DL
Woodard’s Red Team defense, however, would make up for its offense’s early mistakes, recording the first shutout in the event’s seven-year history with a 14-0 Red Team victory.
“This is the first shutout? I had no idea,” said Red Team coach Stan Collins, the former longtime Whitehaven head coach. “But that just tells you I selected a good group of defensive coaches. (Fairley) coach (Rahnmann) Slocum, (Houston) coach (Tim) Haney and (Germantown) coach (Charlie) White were the guys that worked on the defensive side of the ball, and they had a good package put together.”
A Red Team defense that featured Woodard (two tackles for loss), Germantown linebacker Stephen Zambetti (game-high seven tackles) and Fairley defensive back Martavius Neloms registered three fourth-down stops and forced a turnover in the second half in limiting the Blue Team to 158 total yards.
Neloms’ 31-yard interception return early in the third quarter set up an 8-yard scoring run by Neloms’ Fairley teammate, Bulldog quarterback Devin Stark. The Red Team had led, 7-0, at the half on Houston running back Nick Nelms’ 8-yard touchdown run with 33 seconds remaining in the second quarter.
“If it wasn’t for the (defensive) line, we wouldn’t have done anything,” Woodard said. “The all-stars we brought in on the defensive line set it up for the linebackers that we brought in and the DBs. We put together a great defense, and it showed on the scoreboard.”
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CONGRATULATIONS GUYS!