Football all-star game set for PN-G

April 7, 2010
Cody Pastorella
The Port Arthur News

BEAUMONT - Legendary high school football coaches Dan Hooks (West Orange-Stark) and Curtis Barbay (Newton) have faced one another six times from opposite sidelines. The seventh meeting is scheduled for June 15th at Port Neches-Groves High School where the best outgoing seniors from 32 area teams will play in the first ever Southeast Texas Ford Dealers All-Star Classic.

Price of admission for the game has been set at $5 for adults and $2 for students but the location for purchasing tickets had not been decided as of a Wednesday afternoon a press conference held at the Ford Arena in Beaumont.

Mark Foreman, a WO-S assistant coach and vice president of the Southeast Texas Coaches Association, said that ticket information will be available by Thursday morning.

Foreman is the spokesman for the 12-member all-star game committee that is made up of coaches from area high schools.

Foreman said he has been striving to get an all-star game in Southeast Texas for more than 12 years but could never get enough interest from capable sponsors until Texas Ford Dealers stepped up to the plate in December, which is when the serious planning began.

The all-star game committee sent out invitations to 47 schools all across Southeast Texas and received interest from 32 teams. The committee divided those schools by classification and geographic location (East and West).

The East (Hooks) includes WO-S, Nederland, PN-G, Port Arthur Memorial, Orangefield, Hamshire-Fannett, Vidor, Beaumont Central, Silsbee, Hardin-Jefferson, Jasper, Kirbyville, Woodville, Buna, Warren, and Deweyville.

The West (Barbay) includes Newton, Beaumont Kelly, West Brook, Ozen, East Chambers, Lumberton, Anahuac, Barbers Hill, Crosby, Evadale, Hardin, Cleveland, Coldspring, Liberty, and Tarkington.

Coaches from each of the participating teams were required by the committee to nominate and rank their three most deserving players. From that list, Hooks and Barbay automatically selected the top player from each school and then chose the rest according to what they needed to fill out a 38-manroster. A total of 76 total players were selected.

The East and West squads will each have three practices leading up to game day. At the press conference, both Hooks and Barbay stressed that their players report to practice in good condition.

"It's going to be hot," explained Hooks, whose team will meet at Silsbee High School, while Barbay's group will practice at Hardin High School. "There is not enough time to prepare for a whole lot (of plays) so it's important the kids come out ready to go — not for the sake of coach Barbay or for me but for their own sake.

"This is all about the kids. Southeast Texas is enriched with talent and it's about time we get our own all-star game so we can showcase that talent. I think it's very appropriate that we have one. If we can get two or three of the kids a scholarship from even a (JC), I think it will have been more than worth it."

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. that Saturday night. Fox 4 will air the event live.

At the game's conclusion, an offensive and defensive MVP will be chosen from each team and will be awarded with $500 of scholarship money.

Complying to standard all-star game rules, there will be no linebacker blitzes and all punting plays will be dead at the catch. Kickoffs and field goal attempts will be live.

Listed below are the rosters for the teams in the inaugural Southeast Texas Football All-Star Game June 12 in Port Neches.

WEST:

Anahuac: Thaddus Johnson, Braxton Mayes

Barber’s Hill: Matthew Viverette, Caleb Stork Chris Fechner

Cleveland: Jeremy Lowe, Chris Keyser, Doug Higginbotham

Coldspring: Chad Allen, Andrew Leigh, Otis Washington

Crosby: Dylan Judy, Michael Mangum, Cameron Trench, James Harris

East Chambers: Dylan Kramer, J.T. Hallmark

Hardin: Mitch Villemez

Lumberton: Sean Sparks, Jesse Sparks, Kyler Keith

Newton: Halston Flanigan, LaRay Alfred, Malcolm Mattox

Kelly: Chris Quinn, Collin Fournet

Tarkington: Shelby Cucco, Justin Lawrence

Liberty: DeJunge Robinson, Jeremy Dickey

West Brook: Dequenne Bennett, Josh Wilson, Roynald Allen, Broderick Jackson

Ozen: Ricky Francis, Jacoby Anderson, Pierre Harmon

Evadale: Shelby Stanley

EAST

Buna: Dakota Blessing

Central: Keith O’Neal, William Jones, Sterling Cantu

Deweyville: Keeton Addison

Hamshire-Fannett: Justin Skully, Casey Lowe

Hardin-Jefferson: Blake Venable, Jacoby Turner

Jasper: Sam Alvis, Cedric McGill, Tevin McBride

LC-M: Johnny Epps, Jeremy Chauvin

Kirbyville: Chris Ezidore, JaMichael Ervin

Nederland: Taylor Trahan, Grant Lovelady, Marcus Louviere

Orangefield: Corey Huckabay, Derek Evans

PN-G: Caleb Harmon, Klete Leblanc, Dre Dunbar

Memorial: Nate Davis, Eric Payne, Corvin Neal, Earl Hines

Silsbee: Chris Barnes, LeRoy Simmons

Vidor: Scott Utterback, Patton, James Burns

Warren: Dalton Edwards

Woodville: Calib Hadnot

West Orange-Stark: Justin Francis, Stephen Cook, Justin Sparrow

Source: http://panews.com/sports/x993491030/Football-all-star-game-set-for-PN-G