At 7 p.m. on Feb. 23, the Miss-Lou chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame will recognize 14 local junior high and senior student athletes and their coaches at our annual awards banquet which will be at the Hotel Vue on the bluff of the Mississippi River.

The seven high school seniors representing local area high schools, Adams County Christian School, Cathedral School, Delta Charter School, Ferriday High School, Natchez High School, Trinity Episcopal Day School and Vidalia High School will receive a total of $11,000 in scholarship awards for their accomplishments on the playing field and in their community, school and church.

The Miss-Lou chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame was established in 1981 by several of the local football greats from our area and several of our local business men including Mississippi Hall of Famers Joe Fortunato and Allen Brown, Sen. Bob Dearing, former mayor Tony Byrne, coach Red Owens, Fred Foster, Floyd Eppinette, Noland Biglane, Phil Vasser,  Albert Metcalfe and Premo Stallone.

In the early years, the local chapter only recognized each scholar-athlete at the banquet and awarded each with a certificate of accomplishment. But through the hard work and dedication of the founders of the local chapter, and the support of the community, the annual Joe Fortunato Celebrity Golf Classic was established and the proceeds from the tournament enabled the group to award $10,000 in scholarships.  All of the proceeds from the golf tournament and donations from the community are used to fund the scholarship awards.

This year’s local scholar-athletes from area junior high schools and middle schools are Yohan Thompson from ACCS, Aiden Alexander Whitaker from Cathedral, Steven ‘Luke’ Roberson from Delta Charter, Vincent Hollins Jr. from Ferriday, Joshua Lamont Trask Jr. from Robert Lewis Magnet School, Desanto C. Rollins from Trinity and Blair Collins Burchfield from Vidalia. High school senior scholar-athletes are  Davis Sevier Sharp from ACCS, John Ashton Hicks from Cathedral,  Robert ‘Lee’ Lancaster from Delta Charter, Zavier JonTerrian Davis from Ferriday High, Elbert ‘Mo’ Lyles  Jr. from Natchez High, Sim Colebank ‘Cole’ Mosby  from Trinity Episcopal and Jordan Gregory Mays from Vidalia High.

Also two community awards will be presented. ‘The Contributions to Amateur Football’ award will be given to Bishop Robert L. Cade and ‘The Distinguished American Award’ will be given to Freddie Sandel.

The guest speaker at this year’s banquet is the head football coach of Jackson State University,  Tony Hughes.  Hughes coached at Natchez High School in the mid 80s and coached at Mississippi State University, University of Mississippi and University of Southern Mississippi.  He is most noted for his recruiting abilities throughout the state of Mississippi. We are looking forward to his message to the scholar-athletes.

Tickets to the banquet can be purchased from local members or by calling Freddie Sandel at 601-442-9246. Terry Estes at State Farm Insurance 601-446-6555, or the Big Joe Oil Company 601-442-5481.
Joe Willis is the president of the Miss-Lou chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.