By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

With the LHSAA All-Star games set all throughout this week, four athletes from the local area will be heading to Baton Rouge to represent their respective schools.

The events opened Monday at LSU when the volleyball all-stars were scheduled to arrive to begin meeting and practicing. The boys and girls basketball teams came in later that day with Destrehan High School’s Candice McGee, a 5-10 graduating senior, among the girl’s group. Seniors-to-be Justin Porter, a 6-5 forward from Reserve Christian, and Tyren Johnson, a 6-6 center from West St. John, followed with the boys basketball selections.

East St. John’s Roy James, who signed a commitment to play for Jackson State this coming Fall, came in as a member of the LHSAA East football squad.

The agenda for the All-Star week has the student athletes attending practices and clinics on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday the games officially begin with the volleyball game which is set for 7 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

McGee, who helped Destrehan get to the semi-finals round of the girls basketball state championship tournament this past season, was a transfer from Cabrini High School after the hurricane last year. She was named district MVP in 5-5A and has signed with the University of New Orleans for the Fall.

Porter and Johnson, both from small school divisions, are set to be involved for Thursday night’s basketball game and will be playing with, and against, the biggest talents from the largest schools across the state. Porter was a member of the ’05 and ’06 state champion Reserve Christian Eagles team while Johnson won a title with WSJ’s Rams in ’05.

ESJ’s James was the final local scheduled to report to the LSU campus as the football players rolled in on Tuesday. As a member of the East squad, James is listed as a 6-0, 170 lb. utility athlete. As a wide receiver with the Wildcats helped his team reach the quarterfinals last season where they were ousted by Hahnville.

This year’s weeklong schedule of events may be the last time that the LHSAA holds the all-star festivities as a single production. With attendance to the games down increasingly in the last decade because of student athlete commitments through college and university scholarships, as well as the upcoming high school seasons, LSU has suffered monetarily as the host site.

The all-star games for next year are expected to be held just after each respective sports season has ended, minus football which will be absorbed into the Bayou Bowl which pits Louisiana’s All-Stars against those in Texas.