By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

Shelby County has been home to some of the state’s top football players the last few years with several highly-rated recruits playing for local teams, and on Wednesday, Oct. 2, three of those players were honored by being named to the 2019 Alabama roster for the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star game.

Briarwood’s Trent Howard, Calera’s Jayson Jones and Thompson’s Evan McGuire were all named to the prestigious team after putting in years of work with their respective high school teams.

All three of those players are either committed to or have major offers from Division I level colleges as well.

Jones, who is a four-star defensive tackle, is committed to the University of Alabama and head coach Nick Saban. A strong lineman that has also spent time on the offensive line during his four years as a starter at Calera, he has also been named an Under Armour All-American.

While the Alabama-Mississippi game honors the top players in both of those states, the Under Armour game brings the country’s top players together to participate against each other following the high school season.

Howard has also made his college commitment as one of the state’s top offensive linemen. The senior offensive lineman for the Briarwood Lions will be attending Georgia Tech as a three-star player.

He’s a player that flew under the radar his first two years at Briarwood, but former head coach Fred Yancey raved about him before anybody knew about him saying he would be a Division I player.

In his time at Briarwood, Howard has moved all over the line and standing at 6-foot-3, 285 pounds, he’s extremely versatile and could even be a great defensive lineman if need be.

He’s a big reason the Lions are improving offensively this season, and extremely important in the success of running back Luke Prewett, who is also having an incredible season, as well as helping freshman quarterback Christopher Vizzina become comfortable in the backfield.

For Evan McGuire, he has become one of the top kickers in the state and even the country over the last couple of years.

He has yet to commit to a school yet, but has shown some interest in the Auburn Tigers. Just looking at his numbers, he’s a kicker that teams should be lining up to get.

So far during his senior year with the No. 1 ranked Thompson Warriors, McGuire is 33-for-34 on extra point attempts and 2-for-2 on field goals with two 37-yard makes. He also has been a touchback machine. Out of 35 kickoffs this season, opponents have only been able to return four of the kicks.

He’s also punted the ball 13 times for a combined 439 yards, which is good enough for an average of 34 yards per punt.

All three of those players are set up for special college careers, but still have plenty of time to enjoy their remaining high school days as well.

The Alabama-Mississippi All-Star game will take place on Dec. 14 at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.