Escambia County Blue Devils head coach Mark Heaton received a great opportunity to share his talents as a coach, while gaining knowledge from other head coaches at the same time during last week’s Alabama All-Star Week.

Heaton, was an assistant coach for the South football team during last Thursday night’s Alabama All-Star football game that featured two recently graduated Blue Devils in Tocorian Brown and Marshall Rolin.

The Blue Devils head man was selected to coach by Maplesville Red Devils head coach Brent Hubbert, the head coach of the South team.

The experience was one that Heaton did not take for granted because of how rare it is to coach in the game.

“It was just an honor to be able to go and represent our school and to have kids up there that reprsented our school,” he said. “I think it was a big thing that does a lot of good things for our program and for those kids that played in the game. I feel blessed to have been a part of it.”

Working with different head coaches presented Heaton the opportunity to compare his way of doing things to theirs.

The experience showed him some things he could do differently, he said.

“They were a great group of guys to be around,” he said. “I didn’t know any of them personally when I got up there, so I left with a lot of good friends. They are guys that I think we will keep in touch with for the rest of our lives. I always pick up new stuff. There are a couple things that I looked at how we do them and then compared to how it was handled up at the All-Star game and I think we are going to make some adjustments. I’m always learning from other people and how they deal with things. I took a lot from it, and see some changes that will come from it.”

On the field, the Blue Devils were reprsented by two defensive backs in Brown and Rolin.

Their performances helped the South engineer a win, Heaton said.

“They did a great job,” he said. “The toughest thing is to come in there for a week when you haven’t touched the field for a game or practice. Everybody there made some mistakes, but it happens when you aren’t in tune. T.C. (Brown) made some key open-field tackles with some great receivers. Marshall (Rolin) made some incredible pass break-ups with one coming on a key third down that helped force a punt and set up our comeback.”