Bill Napier scholarship awarded to three college-bound football players

May 23—A trio of northwest Georgia high school football seniors were awarded a scholarship named in honor of the late legendary Murray County High School football coach Bill Napier.

Dalton High School's Austin Davis, Southeast Whitfield's Jayden Calhoun and Adairsville's Chris Roper were awarded the $500 Bill Napier Memorial Scholarship at Chatsworth City Park Saturday. Napier, the father of current Murray County head football coach Kurt Napier and University of Florida coach Billy Napier, died in 2017 after being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in 2013.

The elder Napier spent 25 years at Murray County, including 16 as head football coach from 1999 to 2006. Napier later spent time on the staffs at Dalton, Adairsville and Southeast Whitfield.

The scholarship was established by Napier in 2015 and was designed to be awarded to football players at schools Napier coached at. An event was held to raise money to help with Napier's medical costs at the time, but he wanted to give some of it back.

"We wanted the scholarship to go to kids who were good students and showed good character that were going on to play football in college on a partial scholarship," Napier said in 2015.

Dalton's Davis and Southeast's Calhoun are both bound for Reinhardt University in Waleska at the next level.

Davis, who played defensive end at Dalton, is expected to play tight end at the NAIA program. Davis, an All-Region 7-5A second team performer as a senior, had 55 tackles, five sacks and a blocked kick. Calhoun, a force on the offensive line for the Raiders, had 81 pancake blocks as a senior and was named to the All-Region 7-4A first team. Calhoun had more than 25 scholarship and walk-on offers to choose from.

Roper, a running back, is set to play at Dartmouth College.