Mitchell, Rome to compete in Under Armour All-America game

Published 7:08 am Thursday, December 16, 2010

Rosters for the Under Armour All-America High School Football Game have been set, and two of the 90 players competing will be Valdosta Wildcats.

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Tight end Jay Rome and wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell are on team Micro G (white team). They will play against team Click Clack (red team) on Jan. 5 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. The game will be televised on ESPN at 7 p.m.

Mitchell and Rome helped lead the Wildcats to an 11-2 record and the quarterfinals of the Class AAAAA playoffs as seniors. Mitchell caught 77 passes for 1,419 yards and 13 touchdowns, while Rome had 45 receptions for 555 yards and seven touchdowns.

There will be 22 states, plus Washington, D.C., represented in the game. Florida leads the group with the most players (19), followed by Georgia (10), California (10), Texas (8), Arizona (7) and Alabama and Ohio, each with five.

The other eight players from Georgia are running back Isaiah Crowell (Carver), defensive tackle Gabe Wright (Carver), guard Thomas O’Reilly (Pope), receiver Quan Bray (Troup), linebacker James Vaughters (Tucker), receiver Justin Scott-Wesley (Mitchell County), linebacker A.J. Johnson (Gainesville) and defensive end Xzavier Dickson (Griffin).

The players will also participate in several activities surrounding the game, including daily practice sessions that will be televised live on ESPNU on Jan. 2 from 3-6 p.m. and Jan. 3 from 4-7 p.m.

The Under Armour All-America Game Skills Challenge will air Jan. 4 at 9 p.m. on ESPN2.

The Under Armour High School All-America Football Game, an annual competition spotlighting the nation’s top high school seniors, debuted in January 2008 on ABC at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Some notable alumni of the game include USC’s Matt Barkley, Georgia’s A.J. Green and Alabama’s Julio Jones.

Former Lowndes cornerback Greg Reid was the last player from Lowndes County to play in the game. He was the MVP of the Black Team in 2009.