16 Georgians dot rosters for Offense-Defense All-America Bowl

2010-01-13

Happy New Year everybody. I'm still down here in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., covering the Under Armour All-America Game practices.

Actually there's not much to cover today. Because of the rain — and there's a ton of it — the teams had a walk-through at their hotel at 9 a.m. this morning rather than an 11 a.m. practice at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex as scheduled. After that the players checked out of their rooms at the Coronado Springs Resort and loaded buses for the 80-mile ride down to St. Petersburg for Saturday's game (ESPN, 11 a.m.).

But this not the only high school national all-star game going on this weekend. In fact, 16 Georgia kids are in Myrtle Beach, S.C., this weekend to play in the third annual Offense-Defense All-America Bowl.

Generally considered the third-tier of the all-star games — alternately behind the Under Armour and the U.S. Army Game, which will be played Jan. 9 in San Antonio — the O-D Game appears to have a particularly strong field this season, thanks in no small part from the guys from Georgia.

Representing the state of Georgia in the game are Alabama commitment Austin Shepherd of North Gwinnett, Clemson commitment David Beasley of Carver-Columbus, LSU commitment Cameron Fordham of Northview, Georgia commitment Kendrun Malcome of Southwest DeKalb, Alabama commitment Blake Sims of Gainesville, Georgia Tech commitment Barry "B.J." Bostic of Jefferson County, Clemson commitment Darius Robinson of Westlake, Georgia commitment T.J. Stripling of Southwest DeKalb, Clemson commitment Corey Crawford of Carver-Columbus, Georgia Tech commitment Denzel McCoy of Northview, Georgia Tech commitment Shawn Green of Grayson and Stanford commitment Henry Anderson of Woodward Academy.

Uncommitted Georgia participants include OL Roy Parham of Alcovy High, LB Michael Carlisle of Jonesboro, LB Joshua Genhardt of Landmark Christian and OL Kevin James of Greenbrier.

Thirteen of the 16 Peach-staters are playing on the East squad. Gebhardt, Anderson and James are on the West team. The game kicks off at 5 p.m. Saturday and will be televised by Fox College Sports (no, I have no idea what channel that is).

I talked to the outspoken McCoy earlier this week about the O-D bowl.

"It's real nice," said McCoy, a longtime commitment to the Yellow Jackets. "We're staying in like a five-star Marriott resort and we're having a lot of fun. There's a lot of great players here. I got invited a while back and accepted the invitation and just went with it from there."

As for the Under Armour Game I asked Gainesville wide receiver Tai-ler Jones how the players spend New Year's Eve.

"We went bowling," he said. "Then we just came back to the hotel and chilled."

Jones, by the way, said the left ankle he injured on the first day is still sore but he's plans to play.