Wouldn’t it be nice to turn on a football game on a Saturday and see the same players you watched the previous year on Friday nights?

For years, Briarwood fans were able to watch a former player in Crimson and White. It is surprising this year that no Shelby County athlete’s name appears on the Tide’s roster. However, if you go south, you can find a number of county stars playing at Auburn.

Four former All-County athletes hit the field Saturday in the defensive battle in Starkville, Miss., between the Auburn Tigers and Mississippi State Bulldogs, one of which was true freshman Bo Walters of Briarwood, who now wears the Bulldog maroon. The others were Auburn’s Montez Billings of Pelham, Andrew McCain of Briarwood and Ryan Pugh, formerly of Oak Mountain and Spain Park. Two others, Ryan Shoemaker and Neil Caudle were on the sidelines.

The past week has been full of random updates on county players, something I’ve heard a lot of you enjoy hearing about also.

We’d love to help keep you updated on the stars of the past and what they are doing presently. However, sometimes we have players that are not playing in our region that fly beneath our radar. For instance, it wasn’t until Saturday that I learned that former Pelham player Chris Brice is now a Hilltopper at Western Kentucky. Last week, I was telling my brother to keep an eye out for him in the Air Force vs. Wyoming game.

We don’t just want to know about football players, but any athlete that once graced the pages of this paper as a student-athlete or professional athlete.

Where are they now? I’m still learning, and trying to keep up with the transfers.

If you have a favorite player that you’d wish to know where he/she is now, send me an e-mail, or e-mail that athlete’s current college’s sports information office and ask them to help keep the local paper informed.

We welcome your ideas, contributions and tips to help us answer the question, “Where are they now?”

Until then, we’ll keep you covered on our current prep stars, waiting to see where each will choose to play once they finish high school.

Tips and suggestions can be e-mailed to sports@shelbycountyreporter.com