By SAM STAFF/Sports Writer

A pair of “Southern Six” prep football products along with a head coach in the same area have been honored by a national recruiting sedrvice for the exploits on the gridion during the 2025 season.

Rivals.com honored Gulfport senior standout running back Cooper Crosby, Poplarville junior stalwart ball-carrier Ty Keys and Gulfport state championship winning mentor Blake Pennock recently.

Here is what the site said about the top players and coach in the state of Mississippi:

Player of the Year: Cooper Crosby, ATH, Gulfport

The Mississippi State signee produced his best season of high school football in a year that saw the Gulfport Admirals finally getting over the hump, defeating Tupelo for the Class 7A state championship. Crosby played a major factor as the team’s do-everything dynamo on the offensive side of the ball as the senior ended his prep career putting together a strong 2025 campaign. The athlete on the ground ended up rushing for 1,801 yards on 269 carries and scoring 34 touchdowns. Crosby also did a great job catches passes out of the backfield, hauling in 46 passes for 654 yards and scoring seven times. Oh yeah and the senior also had cameos on kick return, returning one back for a touchdown.

Offensive Player of the Year: Ty Keys, RB, Poplarville

A player that saw his stock continue to soar throughout the course of the 2025 Mississippi high school football season was that of Poplarville 2027 four-star running back Ty Keys. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound tailback put up some monster numbers in his junior campaign as he has become one of the country’s top rushers, regardless of state. Keys finished the season for the Hornets rushing for an eye-popping 3,285 yards on 301 carries (10.9 yards per carry) and found the endzone 45 times. There’s little reason to not believe that we could end up seeing Keys topping this list if he puts up numbers besting what he pulled off in 2025.

Defensive Player of the Year: BJ Payton, LB, Noxubee County

The 6-foot-3, 190-pound senior linebacker was a key cog in NCHS run to the Class 3A state championship game, where the Tigers fell, 12-6, to Raleigh. Despite the loss, B.J. Payton capped his high school football career with statistics that could match up with just about anyone in the state. Payton ended the 2025 campaign totaling 178 tackles, 17 going for a loss along with six sacks, five pass breakups, three forced fumbles and recovered three others. Payton finishes his time at Noxubee County with well over 500 career tackles, as 2025 saw the end to one of the program’s best single seasons for a linebacker.

Coach of the Year: Blake Pennock, Gulfport

We started with an athlete from Gulfport and we finish with the head coach of the Admirals in Blake Pennock. The lead man of Gulfport guided the team to a 12-2 finish, which culminated with the program hoisting its first-ever state championship as the school has been open since 1924. The road was never easy for the Admirals, especially in the first few weeks as the team started off 1-2, with losses to Picayune and Petal, respectively. After the loss to Petal, Gulfport ran off 11 straight victories as the team ended up winning the Class 7A state championship in thrilling fashion on a last play Hail Mary pass to upend Tupelo. Doing something a school had never done before in over 100 years, overcoming adversity is definitely some reasons on why Pennock is the Mississippi Coach of the Year.