Inaugural GICAA all-star football game to be played on Saturday

ALBANY — As the Executive Director of the Georgia Independent Christian Athletic Association (GICAA), Gene Harper is proud of the organization’s growth and progress.

The new league added football this season, holding its first championships two weeks ago. Now, the GICAA is ready to add another event to its lineup when it holds its first All-Star Football game Saturday at 1 p.m. at Sherwood Christian School, ironically one of the programs that won a state football championship.

A total of 13 Christian schools from across the state will be represented in the game, with all the players being seniors.

“This year is the first season of having football in our league,” Harper said. “We’re not quite two years old, and at this point, we have over 100 schools that have signed up with us. We feel like that’s a huge success within two years to be able to get over 100 schools. We just feel like we’re going to continue to grow.

“Christian schools have looked for a league with some significance. We feel like that with the size that we have that now and we feel like we’re going to continue to grow. Hopefully by next fall, we’ll have 150.”

There will be 26 players on each team. One team will where red jerseys and the other white.

Otis Covington, the head coach of Sherwood Christian, will coach the Red All-star team, while Chuck Wimberly, the head coach at Thomas Jefferson Academy out of Louisville, will coach the White all-Star team.

There are five players from Sherwood Christian Academy represented on the Red Team: Ben Williams, Chris Hudson, Demetrius Reed, Kenney Brown and Steven Tosky. Covington will also have three of his assistants — Amos Ealy, Marco Kirk and Adam Crosby — helping coach.

GISA ALL-STAR GAME: A wealth of players from across Southwest Georgia will compete in the GISA All-Star game on Saturday at Mercer University in Macon.

Four Deerfield-Windsor players — Austin Fallaw, Dakari Cutts, Austin Cain and Chris Boswell — will play in the game.

Other players across the area who will play on the West squad include Tanner Powell (Southwest Georgia), Perry Bridges (Southwest Georgia), Taft Logan (Southwest Georgia), Hunter Weldon (Southland), Caulden Smith (Southland), Colt Stephens (Southland, Ryan Weaver (Southland), Raleigh Carlson (Terrell Academy), Charlie Massey (Tiftarea), Jack Raines (Tiftarea), Layne Powell (Tiftarea), Ross Sutton (Tiftarea) and Chason Worsham (Westwood).

The game will begin at noon.