LUMBERTON — Four players from the Southeastern Conference and three noteworthy seniors in Cumberland County have been selected to play in this year's Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas on Dec. 15 in Spartanburg, S.C.

Richmond's Devante Covington and Tyrone Crowder as well as Scotland's Artemis Robinson and Malik Diggs will suit up for North Carolina along with Douglas Byrd's Garry Lewis, South View's Greg Gilmore and Patrick Roane from Gray's Creek.

Covington, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound defensive end and Roane, a 6-foot-7, 27o-pound offensive lineman, have committed to South Carolina and N.C. State, respectively. Crowder is one of the state's most coveted recruits with offers from several top-flight SEC and ACC institutions. He took an unofficial visit to Clemson over the weekend for the Tigers' game with Georgia Tech.

Gilmore, an uncommitted powerful defensive end with tremendous speed and size, will visit Oklahoma later this month and will be in Baton Rouge for the LSU-Alabama game on Nov. 3. He's rated as a four-star prospect by most recruiting services.

The Shrine Bowl will kick off at Wofford College's Gibbs Stadium at 1 p.m.

Lumberton's Jermaine Kesler was Robeson County's last Shrine Bowl player in 2009. Kesler is a junior defensive tackle at nationally-ranked Winston-Salem State. Former Pirates Maurice Lewis and Larry Hearne also start for the Division II power.

Second-ranked Richmond battles Lumberton at Alton G. Brooks Stadium on Friday night.