Seven Baldwin County athletes were among the players reporting to Mobile on Tuesday for the 65th-annual North-South All-Star Football Classic hosted by the Alabama High School Athletic Association at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 15.

Both all-star squads were set for two practices on Wednesday and Thursday before a pregame meal at the stadium precedes Friday’s kickoff. The Alabama High School Athletic Directors and Coaches Association administers the game each year and players selected are 2024 seniors.

Tickets will be available for $12 online only at ahsaa.com/sports/fall/football/north-south-all-star-football.

Gulf Coast Media will be on hand for the all-star contest so follow @GCMSportsAL for immediate updates and stay tuned to gulfcoastmedia.com/sports for full coverage. Until then, here are a few storylines to keep an eye out for.

Gulf Shores’ Jackson added to roster

Fresh off a state title, Braden Jackson was added to the offensive side of the roster as a tight end/wide receiver although he also starred on the Dolphin defense and won Seacrest Furniture Athlete of the Week honors after three games with pick-sixes. NC State commit and Class 5A championship MVP Ronnie Royal is listed as an athlete.

Jackson will join MGM’s James Bolton, Vigor’s Jerrian Graham, Auburn’s Ean Nation and Baker’s KJ Beckham in catching passes from quarterbacks Joshua Flowers from Baker and Caleb McCreary from Class 4A champion Montgomery Catholic.

Daphne, Foley also sending two players

Two more local teams will be sending a pair of players to be represented at the North-South All-Star Classic. Daphne has one on either side of the ball with running back Nick Clark and defensive lineman Tyler Durant where Foley running back Kolton Nero will once again look for blocks behind offensive lineman Logan Joellenbeck.

Affectionately known as “Mr. 45,” in the Daphne community after he racked up more than 1,000 rushing yards the last two seasons for the Trojans, Clark will be listed as No. 1 on the roster with all ball carriers wearing a number either 30 and under or 80 and over. Neither team has a 45 on its roster.

One of the mainstays in the Daphne defensive line, Durant recently announced his commitment to Samford where he’ll follow in the footsteps of another Trojan turned Bulldog in Midnight Steward. Durant racked up 51 tackles and 7 tackles for loss over nine regular-season games according to MaxPreps stats.

With Joellenbeck among those blocking for the Foley Lions, Nero set single-season program records for rushing yards and touchdowns with 2,045 yards and 25 touchdowns where he was routinely in MaxPreps’ top-five rushers in the state.

As a South Alabama commit, Joellenbeck will be playing on his future home turf at Hancock Whitney Stadium where he’ll be joining nine local athletes who held spots on the Jaguars’ 2023 roster. The 6-foot-6, 335-pounder committed to South Alabama on June 24 about two weeks after he announced his offer.

Uter set to become Bayside’s first all-star

While Graham Uter will be the lone representative of Bayside Academy, he will reunite with players he grew up playing alongside while also becoming the Admirals’ first selection to the North-South All-Star Classic.

Uter, a 6-foot-5, 285-pound SMU commit, will be another Baldwin County lineman who will have his hands in the trenches. He and Joellenbeck will be on the larger end of the South’s offensive line that also features Matthew Wilfork from Abbeville (6-foot-2, 285 pounds), Kalari Gordon from Carver (6-foot-3, 320 pounds), Benton Dunn from Charles Henderson (6-foot-2, 275 pounds), Brandon Autery from Saraland (6-foot-4, 280 pounds) and Andre Woods from Prattville (6-foot-3, 295 pounds).

They’ll look to help pave the way for other ball carriers including running backs DJ Butler from Davidson and Trent Hood from Central-Phenix City.

Number updates: Baldwin County players on South All-Star Roster

1. Nick Clark – Daphne: 5-foot-9, 200 pounds

5. Kolton Nero – Foley: 5-foot-11, 228 pounds

6. Tyler Durant – Daphne: 6-foot-3, 275 pounds

11. Ronnie Royal – Gulf Shores: 5-foot-11, 185 pounds

18. Braden Jackson – Gulf Shores: 6-foot-1, 185 pounds

51. Graham Uter – Bayside Academy: 6-foot-5, 285 pounds

54. Logan Joellenbeck – Foley: 6-foot-6, 335 pounds

Other additions to South roster

Saraland linebacker Cameron Laffitte, Mobile Christian defensive lineman Diego Camboia, Vigor linebacker Brandon Purifoy and one more player to be named later.

North All-Star roster additions

Five players were added to the North roster including Oneonta’s Da’Marion “Fluff” Bothwell, who rushed for 3,115 yards as a junior and went over 2,000 yards as a senior. Others added to the North roster in recent weeks are defensive end Carlos Ivy of Clay-Chalkville, linebacker Nick Davis of Leeds, defensive back E.J. Havis of Guntersville, and defensive back Ethan Wilder of Gordo.

All-time series

The 64th annual AHSAA North-South All-Star Game was played at Mobile’s Hancock Whitney Stadium on Dec. 16, 2022, where the South won 42-7. The South All-Stars now hold a slim 34-28-2 edge in the series.

Last year’s lopsided battle was definitely not the norm. Most of the games through the years have been low-scoring defensive battles with the winning team scoring more than 30 points just eight times in the series. In fact, the winner has scored 14 or fewer points 33 times in the game’s history.

Since moving the game to Mobile, the South has won twice and the North once.

The North-South Classic was played for many years in Tuscaloosa, then was discontinued following 1983 — and was revived again in 1997. The game, played annually in July during the AHSAA Summer Conference and All-Star Sports Week, moved to December and its new home in Mobile for the 2020 game.

“We are grateful for the City (and County) of Mobile, the Mobile Sports Authority and the University of South Alabama for their continued interest and support of this all-star event,” said Brandon Dean, Director of the AHSADCA. “We look forward to another momentous week in Mobile with some of the best student-athletes in this state. We also thank our member schools for their unwavering support of this game.”

How to watch

The game, scheduled to kick off at 2 p.m., will be televised live over the AHSAA TV Network and live streamed over the NFHS Network. Vince Earley of WOTM TV is the executive producer.

Veteran sports broadcaster Corey LaBounty will handle the play-by-play for the North-South All-Star clash as well as the Alabama-Mississippi Classic on Saturday. UMS-Wright head football coach Terry Curtis, the AHSAA’s all-time winningest football coach with 355 wins, will be in the booth as the color commentator for Friday’s North-South Game.

Mary G. Montgomery head coach Zach Golson will handle the color for Saturday’s Alabama-Mississippi Classic at Hattiesburg.