Area players named to North vs. South game

Four more area football players can call themselves all-stars.

Myrtle Beach’s Drayton Arnold and Brandon Sinclair, Conway’s Jah’Maine Martin and Waccamaw’s Jabbrel Drayton were named to the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Bowl North Vs. South game, to be held December 12 at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium. They will be among the 44 players suiting up for the South team going up against their counterparts from the Upper State programs.

For Arnold and Sinclair, it will be one last game at their home stadium.

“It’s always tough when you’re picking all-star games; staffs change every year and you don’t know who’s going to be picked,” Myrtle Beach coach Mickey Wilson said. “But I think both of those guys are extremely worthy. In my mind, what’s impressed me, with both Drayton and Brandon, is how hard they’ve worked over the last four seasons, in season or out of season.”

Those two have certainly put up some big-time numbers along the way.

The pair of Old Dominion verbal commitments helped lead the Seahawks to the Class AAA state title in 2013 and haven’t let up since. Sinclair has eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing in each of the past three seasons; Arnold has been the area’s top overall passer in that stretch and was named The Sun News Toast of the Coast Offensive Player of the Year in 2014.

Martin has had a dynamic two-year career at Conway. After rushing for 1,132 yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior, the tailback has added 817 yards and 15 scores so far this season for the Tigers.

Although updated defensive figures weren’t immediately available, Drayton had 15 tackles and four for loss through Waccamaw’s first five games. He is just the third Waccamaw player all-time selected for any all-star game. Last season, Tyler Davis became the school’s first Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas selection; in 2010, Jerome Maybank was named to the Offense-Defense All-American Bowl.

The four players from this season earned all-star nods alongside Conway’s Bryan Edwards, who was the area’s lone Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas selection. Edwards is out for the rest of the season with a knee injury suffered last week.

Waccamaw coach Tyronne Davis was announced as one of the South assistant coaches in February. Marlboro County’s Dean Boyd will be the head coach of the South team, while Great Falls’ Ken Schofield will be in charge of the North.

Although the South squad won last year’s game 23-18, the North has won nine of the past 11 games and holds an all-time lead in the series 38-27-2.

This story was originally published October 26, 2015 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Area players named to North vs. South game."