LAKE PROVIDENCE – Either the ball just seemed to find Jamie Fortenberry or he knew how and what to do with it when he had it. Either way, Fortenberry got everything out of his 170-pound frame in leading the Briarfield Academy Rebels to the MPSA, Academy-A title game at Mississippi College.

While the Rebels came up short 28-27, Fortenberry left it all on the field. He threw for a touchdown and then caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from Craig LeBeau in the final minute and a half against Trinity Episcopal School of Natchez.

Most of the time during the season, it was Fortenberry who was either running or passing the Rebels to victory in an 11-3 season. Because of the way things seemed to happen when he had the ball, Fortenberry is the Vicksburg Post’s 2006 All-Area Player of the Year.

&#8220It was a pretty good season, we were just one step away,” Fortenberry said of his senior season at Briarfield. Next fall, he will be just a student at Louisiana State University. In fact, he hopes to root for the very guy who played a major part in defeating his Rebels in the MPSA title game, LSU-committment Stevan Ridley of Trinity.

&#8220I’m glad he’s going to LSU,” Fortenberry said after Ridley carried 50 times for 308 yards in the championship game.

Fortenberry had some impressive numbers of his own during 2006, finishing the year with 2,149 yards of total offense running, throwing, and receiving, and accounting for 37 touchdowns. He rushed for 775 yards and 15 touchdowns. He then completed 70 of 119 passes for 1,224 yards and 19 touchdowns. He also had 150 yards receiving and three more scores.

&#8220It’s been a blast. I think going to the spread helped everybody on the team because we could score anywhere on the field,” Fortenberry said.

&#8220When we went four wide, it really opened up our zone plays for Jamie,” Briarfield coach Lance Prine said. &#8220It was usually a big play for us because he had the option to run or pass. Now, we had some trouble with it against Trinity and we went to something else, but for a big part of the season, teams had trouble defending against it.”