ALL AMERICAN BOWL

 The Kentucky Middle School All-Stars are headed for the third-round of the All-American Middle School Football Tournament in St. Louis Saturday. Playing on that team is Whitley County Middle School eighth grader Zack Mills.

Mills, who scored the winning touchdown for the Colonels in the state semifinals on an interception, has started at linebacker against the Illinois All-Stars in a 44-0 win and last week against the Wisconsin All-Stars in a 40-7 victory.

Mills was chosen for the Kentucky All-Stars after being nominated by a middle school coach other than his own coach, David Bryant. “He was one of 35 chosen to play on the team after going through several processes and being seen in the Kentucky Middle School playoffs,” Bryant said.

“The players were selected through a nomination process that we have for our Kentucky Middle School Football Association game each year,” said Phillip Hawkins of the state board. “FBU gave us 11 positions each on offense and defense and 113 additional players for back up roles. I had a video for review and was able to actually watch all 35 of the Kentucky team players throughout the playoffs.”

“These players were hand selected by me, before we selected the players for the East/West game,” Phillips said. “When we win on Saturday, we will be in the semi-finals that will take place in San Antonio January 3-7.”

“He had some outstanding games, both on offense as well as defense during the playoffs and that really helped,” added Bryant.

“He has started at linebacker the first two games, but he may be switched to offense this week,” Bryant said.

Bryant said, “He played on both sides of the ball for us this year. I really don’t know how many total yards he had, but in the playoff game against Bell County he had 379 yards. He is just heck of a back.”

“Playing in the state got him more exposure,” Bryant said. “Plus, we play a tough schedule which really helped. People were already talking about him for we got to the state playoffs, but he really opened a lot of eyes once they saw him there.”

“It has really been fun,” Mills said. “We’ve got to play in two games and I’ve got to meet a lot of new teammates from around the state.”

“We get to go to St. Louis this weekend and if we win there, we will go to San Antonio, Texas and the Alamo,” Mills said.

Mills has had approximately 10 tackles in the two wins and three for losses according to Bryant.

“This is the first year for the event,” Phillips said. “There were 40 states involved.”