The Offense-Defense All-American Bowl is an annual high school football all-star game typically held in early January, created to spotlight the nation's top high-school seniors. The game was originally hosted in the U.S. state of Florida, but the 2009 edition was moved to the Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina.
The inaugural game was played on January 4, 2007, at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The next year the game moved to the Orange Bowl in Miami. The demolition of the Orange Bowl started in March 2008 so the 2009 edition was moved to Brooks Stadium, the campus stadium of Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.
The game is in an East versus West format, with each team made up of 40 of the best high school seniors from across the nation as determined by Rivals.com. A national player of the year award is also presented the night prior to the game. The game was originally broadcast nationally to a prime-time audience thanks to broadcast partner ESPNU. The 2009 edition was increased to 88 total players, as selected from the Offense-Defense Top 100 list, a national recruit ranking system published by Sports Illustrated. Participants included 15 players ranked in the top-100 list.
The other big high school all-star games are the U.S. Army All-American Bowl played in San Antonio, Texas and the Under Armour All-America Game played in Orlando, Florida. Because all of these games host their events during the same week, they are in competition for players. A number of marquee players have participated in the O-D competition, including Cam Newton, Dez Bryant, Aaron Corp, Kodi Burns, Jarrett Lee, et al.
Game results DateSiteWinning teamLosing teamMVPJanuary 4, 2007 Lockhart Stadium - Fort Lauderdale, FloridaEast 28 West 14 Cam NewtonJanuary 4, 2008 Orange Bowl - Miami, FloridaEast 12 West 8 Mike ZordichJanuary 2, 2009 Brooks Stadium - Conway, South CarolinaEast 29 West3 Offense: Demond Dennis Defense: Kwame GeathersJanuary 2, 2010 Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina East0 West35 K.P. ParksDecember 31, 2010 Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina East21 West35 Michael CarlisleDecember 29, 2011 Cowboys Stadium - Arlington, TexasEast14 West21 Caleb RoweDecember 30, 2012 Reliant Stadium - Houston, TexasNational20 American9 Trent HosickJanuary 3, 2014 Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium - Orlando, FloridaNational21 American19 Stanley Williams
References
External links
Athlon Sports feature