Callaway High’s Keshun Freeman got the opportunity to play alongside some of the best prep players in the state on Monday when he participated in the AT&T Georgia Junior Bowl at Grady Stadium in Atlanta.

The top juniors in the state were invited to play in the game, including Freeman, who had a standout season as a linebacker for the 10-2 Cavaliers.

The game, which was sponsored by RisingSeniors.com, included close to 100 players from across Georgia.

“The practices were great, and I met a lot of players from across the state,” Freeman said. “It was a lot of fun.”

Freeman didn’t start, but he saw significant playing time and was given heavy-duty responsibility by his coaches.

“I was on second team, but I played a lot,” Freeman said. “It was so fun. I was responsbile for calling the plays, for coverages. I played mike linebacker. My job was to call the plays, and to make sure the defensive linemen were in the right spot. That position really gave me a lot of responsibility, and college coaches saw me calling plays and stuff.”

Freeman called it an “amazing” experience, and not just because of what took place on the field.

“They made it not only about the game, but about preparing us for college, and they taught us a lot of things about the NCAA, and about managing money, and just having plans other than football in case football doesn’t work out,” Freeman said. “Then, they really mentored us about how to be a brotherhood, about going out and paying it forward.”

Freeman said another thing that made the week so special was the involvement of his god-brother, LaBronze Zelaya, who is a sophomore on the Callaway football team.

During the RisingSeniors day camp on Saturday, Freeman said Zelaya and his mother sat in with the “Players Curing Kids Cancer” project.

In December, Zelaya’s younger brother, Kavon Zelaya, died of leukemia.

Freeman said the project the players participated in involved creating murals that he said would be sent “all around the world” to hopefully bring some cheer to children in hospitals who have cancer.

Freeman has been a starter and a standout player for the Cavaliers the past two seasons, and he’s also a stellar student and he’s leader in the school.

Last summer, Freeman received the Rotary Club’s youth leadership award, and he’s also a key member of the school’s drama club.

“Keshun is a great kid. He has great parents at home,” Callaway head coach Pete Wiggins said. “He’s a leader on our football team. He brings great work ethic to our practices, to our workouts. He has great expectations for himself.”

Freeman did a tremendous job as a defensive lineman as a sophomore, but the coaches needed him at linebacker as a junior, so there’s where he spent much of the season.

Wiggins said Freeman is the type of player who will do whatever the coaches ask of him with a smile on his face.

“He’s very humble. He’s unselfish,” Wiggins said. “We can play him anywhere on the field, and he’ll do the job and never question it.”