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Two student-athletes from The Calhoun School, Keonte Abrams and Jeremy Hardy, are deep in preparation for travel to Texas where the pair will represent Lowndes County and compete in the All-United States Bowl Game on Jan. 14.

Tigers’ defensive coordinator Robert Sellers said the players were selected based on highlight material submitted by either a coach or parent on the players’ behalf.

“At the end of the year a coach or a parent can send in a highlight video to nominate a player,” Sellers said. “They [All-United States] pick the ones that they feel are the best ones that they’ve seen, and then they reach out and let you know you’ve been selected to start the process.

According to the organization’s website, All-United States Bowl games are hosted by USA Select National Youth Football League Inc., and the games are aimed to provide an authentic year-end bowl game to showcase the top 12U and 13U middle school, and ninth through  12th-grade high school players from across the nation.

For Abrams, this is not the first time he has been selected to participate in such a game. He was selected to attend the Dream All-American Bowl his freshman year, which spotlights the top 180 prospects in the nation. He was also selected to attend the All-United States Bowl last year. 

Athletic director Nick Rankins said that Abrams has been working overtime in order to secure his place in post-season bowl games like these. 

“He [Abrams] goes to a lot of different camps and he’s a real dedicated kid,” Rankins said. “Once they see your highlights and you go to other camps and they see stuff like that, they say ‘Hey, we want this kid to come back’.”

Sellers, who is also Abrams’ father, gave credit to the two young men for the work they put in this season with the Tiger football team and said that attending games like these is a way to hopefully secure college scholarship opportunities.

“The guys put in a lot of hard work this season and it’s paying off for them,” Sellers expressed. “As coaches we have to get our guys out into the world to be seen, and get them noticed so they have the chance to get scholarships. We do our best to get our guys in the public eye by any means.”

The All-United States Bowl Game will take place in San Antonio, TX on Jan. 14. Those interested in watching the game who cannot attend in person can stream online for a small fee at https://americanfootballglobal.vhx.tv/.