With the high school football season well and gone, most teams have their eyes locked on preparations for next year, but a select few players and coaches had the chance to lace up their cleats or don a headset one more time in the Bernard Blackwell North/South All-Star Game before the clock strikes 2026.
A small cast of area players and New Hope head coach Allen Glenn were all given the nod to join the ranks of talented players and coaches to represent the North in the game, and on Dec. 20 at Gulfport’s Milner Stadium the crew delivered in their last chance for gridiron action with a 42-14 victory over the South team – the team’s second consecutive triumph in the series.
For Glenn, who coached New Hope to a 7-4 season in his second year of leading the Trojans’ football program, the game and the days leading up to it were one last football gift to savor during the hectic holiday season before he gets busy with his team’s offseason work.
“It’s an awesome opportunity. (I’m) just very blessed and thankful to the MAC, the Mississippi Association of Coaches and (executive director) Johnny Mims for selecting me as a coach,” Glenn said. “It’s an awesome week. You get to coach some of the best of the best in the North part of our state, so it’s just awesome getting to be with the other coaches on the staff and then being able to coach really good players in the game too.”
The contest marked the second time Glenn has been an assistant coach in the game, the first was in 2019 when he was on the sidelines at Amory, but this year’s nod allowed him to get back to his early roots of coaching and get his hands in the dirt with the offensive line.
“I love it,” he said. “I coached the quarterbacks and running backs now, really since I became a head coach. Really, for the last 10 years I’ve been a quarterbacks and running backs coach and this game kind of gives me the opportunity to do the throwback thing and coach really what I began my career doing, and that made it so fun. I’m an O-line guy at heart, so it was a really fun few days. (It) was refreshing to kind of put the head coach hat aside for a little bit and go out and coach football. I definitely relish the opportunity the MAC gave me to be able to do that.”
Joining Glenn on the team from the area were West Point offensive lineman Aiden Brooks and defensive lineman Demarvion Haughton, Starkville offensive lineman Jason Posey, long snapper John Mansell and manager Hayes Montfort, and New Hope defensive lineman Micah Butler.
It didn’t take long for the ensemble to pull ahead en route to a blowout. Oxford defensive back Kingston Gregory returned an interception 68 yards in the first quarter for the first points of the game, and Charleston running back Marcus Flowers punched in a two-yard run for an early 14-0 lead. The North opened the second quarter with a 47-yard touchdown throw from Germantown quarterback King White to East Webster’s Lakendrick Potts, and Germantown receiver Mike Johnson took a reverse handoff into a seven-yard touchdown toss to Shannon’s Dagarrious Clifton. With just over six minutes left to play in the first half, the North was already up 28-0.
In order to get ready for the game, coaches met sometimes by video calls and just regular conversations over the phone to talk and make gameplan decisions in the weeks leading up to the game, and then it took a couple days of rigorous practice sessions to get the players ready.
“We felt like we were very prepared,” Glenn said. “I felt like we were able to coach our kids very hard and we just had a great group of young men, which speaks highly of the schools they came from. We kind of started early and were able to keep it rolling throughout the game.”
Ocean Springs’ Sharriod Whitehead ran in a score from four yards to get the South on the board, and the North responded with a 22-yard strike from White to Holmes County Central’s Jaiden Tucker. Corinth linebacker Patrick Crump returned a muffed punt two yards and the team added a two-point conversion in the third quarter for its final points of the game. Terry running back Ronde Baker scored the South’s final touchdown from 1 yard out in the fourth quarter to end the game.
With coaching staffs from colleges all over the state in attendance, one player that stood out to Glenn was New Hope’s own Butler, which Glenn said was special to see.
“Just being able to go out one more time with him was cool, and he also had a great week,” Glenn told The Dispatch. “He dominated as a defensive lineman in the game and in all the practices too. I think he really raised his stock moving forward for his collegiate career, too.”
A lot of players were able to showcase what they can do, and at the end of the day that’s what the game is really all about, Glenn said.
“This opportunity really gives those guys a chance to prove what they can do in front of those coaches in a practice setting versus the best of the best,” he said. “… So, I definitely think it gives those guys an opportunity to really raise their stock as a recruitable player, and I think not just Micah, but there were several kids on our roster who were able to really raise their stock even more than what it was.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
