It’s that magical time of year, when the weather turns cold, everyone gets a little more jolly, and presents magically appear under the tree.

‘Tis also the season when The Vicksburg Post puts a bow on the football season by unveiling its all-county football team.

As is custom, we will roll out the team and our individual award winners in waves. The Offensive Player of the Year and All-County offense will be released on Christmas Eve; the Coach of the Year honored on Friday, Dec. 27; and the Defensive Player of the Year and All-County defense on the weekend of Dec. 28-29.

We do it that way to coincide with our print schedule, and the news flow of a holiday week when most of the sports world — including The Vicksburg Post sports staff — takes a few days off.

Most of the time, when we select our football players of the year, it’s easy to narrow the choices down to a few candidates and pick one individual winner. This year, though, that wasn’t so easy. In the end, we decided to put the “team” in “all-county team.”

The Defensive Player of the Year award will be shared, for the first time in its 37-year history, by not one, not two, but three players — Warren Central defensive linemen Larry Reynolds, Ronnie Blossom and Tekarius Qualls.

The Vikings’ trio was a terror for opposing offenses all season long, and the heartbeat of a unit that allowed 13.1 points per game. Reynolds, Blossom and Qualls combined for 96 tackles for loss and 26 sacks, forced nine fumbles and recovered eight.

Watching Warren Central over the course of the season, it was obvious that the line was the best part of a defense loaded with outstanding players. Yet it was hard to put any one of those three above the others.

Each had their strengths, and each made game-changing plays — some of which might have been caused by unseen plays made by the others who occupied an extra blocker or flushed a quarterback into the grasp of a teammate. In fact, they all credited their fourth lineman, senior Allen Oliver, with doing a lot of the “dirty work” of plugging holes and occupying double teams which allowed them to make tackles.

So, we’re making history by picking all three.

Warren Central will also take the Coach of Year award. Josh Morgan led the Vikings to their second consecutive MHSAA Region 2-6A championship, a 9-4 record, and their first appearance in the state semifinals in 30 years.

Morgan has long been one of Mississippi’s best high school football coaches, to the point that it’s easy to become numb to the consistent success he’s brought to Warren Central. It shouldn’t be taken for granted, and it’s good to recognize it when we get the chance.

On the offensive side, the Player of the Year is Porter’s Chapel Academy’s Jase Jung. The senior started the season playing a traditional running back position, then shifted to a wildcat or single-wing quarterback as he smashed every Warren County rushing record on the books.

Wherever he lined up, Jung was an unstoppable force. He broke the Warren County season and career records for rushing yards and touchdowns while averaging a Herculean 25 carries per game. He also threw five touchdown passes and caught one; and played defensive back and led the team with six interceptions while racking up 70 tackles.

Like with the Warren Central defensive linemen, it didn’t take a trained eye to spot how much of a difference-maker Jung was. Also like his all-county counterparts, Jung beneifted from the often-unseen grunt work of his teammates.

Throughout his record-setting season, Jung made sure to praise the work of offensive linemen Conley Johnston, Jackson Blackmon, John Austin White, Henry Slayton and Hunter Simms, among others. They cleared holes in the defense that Jung was able to sprint through.

PCA coach Blake Purvis also did an outstanding job of evolving his offense and personnel packages to get the most out of not only his talented star, but the entire team. The Eagles finished with an 8-5 record and reached the second round of the MAIS Class 2A playoffs for the third year in a row.

Morgan narrowly edged out Purvis for the Coach of the Year award, but Purvis deserves a truckload of praise for the tweaks he made all season to keep PCA on a winning path.

It’s been a fun football season. Nearly a dozen county and school records fell. Vicksburg High’s DeCorey Knight Jr. reached an unprecedented milestone by finishing his high school career with 3,000 yards rushing and 1,000 receiving.

Knight also broke the school’s career rushing record that had stood for 45 years.

Warren Central reached a new playoff frontier, and St. Aloysius and Porter’s Chapel both won playoff games. Let’s take one more week to celebrate it all before we launch into 2025. Congratulations to the Players and Coach of the Year, and to all of those who made the All-County team itself. It’s been a fun ride.

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Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com