3 hit finalists list

Three Shoals high school football players can’t put the season to rest just yet.

They have another date on their calendar.

Muscle Shoals’ Ka’Mhariyan Johnson and Mars Hill’s Jaxon Penn and Samuel Swinney have been named finalists for the Alabama Sports Writers Associations major awards.

Johnson is up for Class 6A lineman of the year, Penn is on the list for 3A back of the year and Swinney a finalist for 3A back of the year.

The winners — plus Mr. Football and the state’s 12-player Super All-State team — will be named Jan. 20 at a luncheon banquet at the Montgomery Renaissance.

Johnson, an Alabama signee, is Muscle Shoals’ first major-award finalist in six years and just the second in over a decade, while Penn and Swinney continue a habit by the Panthers.

The last Muscle Shoals football finalist was Jackson Bratton for 6A lineman in 2019.