By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

MOBILE, Ala. — As usual, Team Mississippi will face some tough opposition in the prestigious Alabama/Mississippi All-Star Football Classic in a little less than two months.
The Alabama roster was announced on Wednesday for the 38th annual affair, and it again includes a star-studded list of stellar players.
The 41-player team for the Dec. 14 game was selected by the Alabama High School Athletic Directors & Coaches Association selection committee. Mississippi’s team was announced several weeks back.

Alabama improved its record in the series to 26-11 with a 26-17 win over the Mississippi All-Stars last December. This year’s game will be played at Hancock/Whitney Stadium here in this Port City on the campus of the University of South Alabama with kickoff scheduled for noon.
Saraland head football coach Jeff Kelly was announced earlier this year as the head coach for the Alabama team. Kelly played in the 1996 Alabama-Mississippi Classic as a quarterback from Citronelle High. After his college career at Southern Miss, he was drafted in the seventh round by the Seattle Seahawks. He has served as offensive coordinator for the game and may be the first person to appear as a player, assistant and head coach in the All-Star game.

Kelly has led his Spartans to back-to-back Class 6A state championship appearances, with Saraland winning it’s first-ever state title in 2022. The Spartans are 8-0 so far this season. Kelly is 140-36 in 14 years at Saraland.

Veteran Pascagoula head coach Lewis Sims will serve as the defensive coordinator for the Mississippi squad this year.
Kelly’s two quarterbacks in the upcoming all-star contest include his own Saraland signal-caller in Texas commit KJ Lacey.
Lacey threw six touchdown passes in last week’s win 58-7 win over Mobile Murphy in his second game back from injury after missing four games. He is completing 61 percent of his passes for 1,493 yards and 21 scores this season.

The other quarterback selected is Oxford’s Mason Mims, who has guided the Yellow Jackets to an 8-0 record and has committed to the University of Louisville.
That duo will throw to a receiving corps of wide receiver Derick Smith of Southside-Selma who has committed to Alabama, Carver-Montgomery wide receiver Tristan Norman who has committed to Texas A&M, and Auburn’s Peyton Plott who has committed to Georgia Southern as well as Lacey’s teammate C.D. Gill who has caught 42 passes for 694 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Carver-Montgomery’s Anthony Rogers, who is committed to Alabama, was also selected as a running back on this team along with Gulf Shores’ Kolin Wilson, who is committed to Mississippi State.

But perhaps the biggest name in the ‘Bama backfield is Elba High School senior running back Alvin Henderson, who is on the verge of becoming the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s all-team leading rusher.
Henderson, who is committed to Auburn, heads into this week’s home game against Florala needing 104 yards to break the AHSAA all-time career rushing record of 9,839 yards set by Alexandria’s Mac Campbell from 1993-97. Henderson led the nation with 68 touchdowns scored last season and set the AHSAA single season rushing record with 3,523 yards on 225 carries – a 15.7 yards-per-carry average – and also set a state mark with 61 rushing touchdowns. This season, he has 2,426 yards and 42 touchdowns in nine games – averaging a career-best 269.6 rushing yards per game. He has averaged 13.6 yards per carry over his high school career with 717 carries and 9,736 yards. Henderson has run for 174 scores and has scored 184 total touchdowns including his receiving and punt and kick return scores. His tandem yards total, which includes kick returns, passing and receiving yards, is 10,282 yards in 51 games.

Among the defensive standouts on this year’s All-Star squad are Ohio State commitments Zion Grady of Enterprise, a powerful 6-foot-5, 245-pound linebacker, and Na’eem Offord of Parker, a 6-1, 185-pound defensive back.
Defensive lineman Jourdin Crawford of Parker, linebacker Jakaleb Faulk of Highland Home and defensive back Anquon Fegans of Thompson have all committed to Auburn, while T.R. Miller linebacker Myles Johnson has committed to Florida. Parker defensive back Timothy Merritt and Central-Phenix City wide receiver Daylyn Upshaw have both committed to the University of Miami.

Joining Sims on the Mississippi team will be a trio of “Southern Six” standouts in George County standout signal-caller Deuce Knight, also an Auburn commit, and St. Stanislaus suburb placekicker Evan Noel, an Arkansas commit, and Gulfport stalwart offensive lineman Jamarius “J.J.” McCann were all selected to represent their home state in the prestigious Alabama/Mississippi All-Star Classic.