Last Monday, we introduced the first set of King’s Daughters Medical Center Players of the Week. Today, we recognize two more outstanding performances from this past Friday.

Offensive Player of the Week

This week’s Offensive Player of the Week goes to Brookhaven High School’s dynamic athlete, Justin Blue. Blue is a 5’9’’, 175 lb. junior running back at BHS. While he shows out in the backfield, Blue also plays outside linebacker and returns kicks. This past Friday, he played a vital role in the Panthers narrow 7-6 victory over the Hazlehurst Indians. Blue gained 114 yards on 19 carries averaging 6.0 yards per carry. He also provided the sole touchdown for the Panthers in the first quarter, which proved to be the winning score. Dara Moak, an athletic trainer at KDMC, said this regarding the selection of Blue for the Offensive Player of the Week: “I chose him because he scored the only touchdown and was a fighter on the field. He tried to get as many yards as he could every single play.”

This seems to be becoming a popular trend for Blue. Against Lawrence County, in the Panthers first game of the season, Blue rushed for 107 yards on just 12 carries averaging a whopping 8.92 average. Needless to say, against the Indians, he picked up where left off two weeks ago. The Panthers will face Petal High School next week, and if Blue continues to perform like this, things will only get better for BHS.

Defensive Player of the Week

This week’s Defensive Player of the Week goes to West Lincoln High School’s standout linebacker, Jeremy Laird. Laird is a senior at WLHS and is one of the anchors for the Bear defense. This past Friday, West Lincoln hosted the Enterprise Yellowjackets in a non-league challenge. However, the home field advantage proved to be too little to keep the Yellowjackets from running away with a dominating 33-6 win. Despite losing the contest, Laird shined on the defensive side of the ball. He was flying all over the field while registering a team high, 12 tackles. The Enterprise offense weren’t the only ones to notice either. KDMC head athletic trainer, Lee Dunaway, had this to say about Laird’s performance: “Jeremy Laird showed a lot of senior leadership on defense by being in on just about every tackle and never giving up. He is very strong, physical, and stands out on the field.”

 This is nothing new for Laird, who last season had 70 total tackles averaging 7.0 tackles per game. This Friday, the Bears will look to get their first win of the season as they travel to Sacred Heart to take on the Crusaders.

Congratulations from King’s Daughters Medical Center to both players for two exceptional performances. Be sure to go to www.kdmc.org next Monday to see which two players earned this week’s Players of the Week awards.