TIFTON — Fresh off of a 12-2 campaign — the school’s best since 1997 — the Tift County Blue Devils placed 14 players on the 2006 All-Tiftarea football team.

Besides the players, also honored from Tift County is head coach Jay Walls, who is the 2006 All-Tiftarea Coach of the Year.

This year’s squad was comprised of players nominated by the eight area high school head football coaches. The selections for the All-Tiftarea team were made in the weeks following the completion of the 2006 football season.

The Blue Devil contingent was led by 2006 All-Tiftarea Offensive Player of the Year Kaream Hess. The 2006 All-Tiftarea Defensive Player of the Year was Irwin County’s Terry Ashley.

Tift was followed by Fitzgerald with 10 players and Turner with nine. Tiftarea Academy had six players chosen, while Cook, Irwin County and Berrien had four players picked apiece. Worth County had three players chosen.

In his first year as a signal-caller, Tift County senior Sean Baxley was picked as the first-team quarterback. He ended the year completing 204-of-316 passes for 1,953 yards. He also 17 touchdown passes and 13 passes intercepted.

Hess was a first-team running back after putting up 1,774 yards of total offense. He was joined in the first-team backfield by Fitzgerald’s Nick Williams, who rushed for 1,295 yards on 155 carries. Williams also scored 116 total points.

Three first-team wide receivers were picked for the squad.

In the receiving corps, Tift County’s Israel Troupe is joined by Turner County’s Demario Barber and Dontavious Smith.

Troupe, an University of Georgia commitment, caught 62 passes for 672 yards and six touchdowns. He also had eight kickoff returns for 194 yards, 14 punt returns for 108 yards and 20 rushes for 119 yards.

Barber caught 37 passes for 657 yards and 10 touchdowns, while Smith had 34 catches for 648 yards and eight scores.

The first-team offensive line was perhaps the easiest choices as all five players were picked first-team All-State.

Fitzgerald’s Travis Fleming graded out at 90 percent on the year as he helped the Purple Hurricane rack up over 300 yards rushing per contest.

Tift County’s Zach Allen also graded out at around 90 percent on the season as helped the Devils produce a 1,000 yard passer and rusher.

Turner County’s Keyshawn Odum was the Rebels’ highest graded lineman all year. Turner ended up amassing 2,220 yards rushing and 2,046 yards passing.