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Plans are under way for an ambitious new high school football all-star game on Dec. 30 in Maryland, but organizers have not yet finalized the location or secured funding for the event, which they estimate will cost more than $100,000 to produce.

Bowie resident Tony Kennedy is the lead organizer of the Chesapeake Bowl through his promotional company Extra Point Productions. He is working in partnership with Sean O'Connor, president of the statewide Maryland Crab Bowl all-star game.

While the Crab Bowl includes senior players from Maryland, the Chesapeake Bowl will be a regional game for seniors that will include a North team comprised of players from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, against a South team of players from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

The Crab Bowl is set for Dec. 18 at Bowie State University, and the Chesapeake Bowl will be played Dec. 30. O'Connor, the baseball coach at DeMatha High School and president of Internet streaming company All In Broadcasting, said the Chesapeake Bowl is working on an agreement to play at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

Kennedy, a former standout football player at Bladensburg High School and Virginia Tech University, said a game like the Chesapeake Bowl is overdue for the region.

"People go to these big all-star games across the country, [but] you never see any from our state and our region," Kennedy said. "It would be lovely to have an all-star game and feature players and talent from the Mid-Atlantic region."

Kennedy said he expects the Chesapeake Bowl will cost $100,000 to $150,000, including stadium rental, advertising, housing for players and coaches, food, uniforms, insurance and practice facilities. He said he has not yet secured any funds, though he expects to have sponsorship commitments soon. Kennedy said he is in talks with companies that may be willing to trade sponsorships for hotel space or uniforms. He said he is prepared to pay to run the event if sponsorships don't materialize.

"What drives me is that I won only eight high school games in four years that I was at Bladensburg, but I got scholarship offers and went to Virginia Tech," Kennedy said. "I want to make sure that we find those kids who can play, but maybe were on teams that only won two games a year, and get them chances to be seen against top competition so they can get scholarships. If our game helps one kid get a scholarship worth $20,000 a year, it's worth more than what the game cost."

"You have a dream budget and a working budget," O'Connor said, adding the partnership between the Chesapeake Bowl and Crab Bowl will be beneficial to both. "As things get closer you may have to start scaling back to make the event happen. But adding a second game lowers the price, because you can buy things like uniforms, equipment, T-shirts and insurance in bulk."

Much of Kennedy's attention in recent weeks has been focused on another Extra Point Productions event, the inaugural I-95 Kickoff Classic, a series of five games over two days on Sept. 3 and 4 at Towson University's Unitas Stadium. Prince George's County will be represented in the I-95 Kickoff Classic on Sept. 4, as Bishop McNamara faces Baltimore's Mount St. Joseph High at 10:30 a.m. and DeMatha faces Towson's Loyola Blakefield High at 4:30 p.m.

Last year, Kennedy was involved in the initial planning for the Coach Nick Lynch Classic, a football season kickoff event held in September 2009 to honor Lynch, the late Suitland High coach, who died in an auto accident on Dec. 31, 2008. The Prince George's County Office of Interscholastic Athletics eventually took over the Lynch Classic when Kennedy had difficulty securing a location. It was originally planned as a quadruple-header at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium, where Kennedy said the rental fee was "more expensive than it should have been." After the Charles County Schools denied Kennedy the use of the stadium at North Point High School in Waldorf because the event involved teams from outside of Charles County, the Lynch Classic was played as a double-header at Largo High School.

The Chesapeake Bowl is expected to attract 88 to 100 players, who will be selected by invitation. Most of the work outside of fundraising will go into evaluating the players invited to the game. For that, Kennedy said he has enlisted the commitment of about 100 coaches and scouts from the six states involved.

Kennedy said he hopes to have the invitations sent out no later than Nov. 1. The evaluation process began with the Chesapeake Bowl's Evaluation and Training Camp last weekend, which included about 80 players. The game's website (www.chesapeakebowl.com) includes a list of players who were invited to the training camp, including 39 from Prince George's County.

The head coaches already have been selected. Biff Poggi of Gilman School in Baltimore will guide the South team, while Terry Smith of Gateway High School in Monroeville, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh, will coach the North squad.

"It's a tremendous opportunity not only for the organizers of the game, but for the coaches and more importantly for the kids selected for the game," Smith said. "A game like this takes the all-star game to another level beyond the county and state and makes it a regional game. It's a chance to compete at a high level with a lot of talent."

The Chesapeake Bowl will join a growing group of postseason all-star games for area high school football players. The Maryland Crab Bowl has been held the past two years, matching a team of Baltimore-area all-stars against a team of Washington, D.C.-area all-stars. Kennedy is listed as the director of football operations on the Crab Bowl website.

Last year, the Crab Bowl sparked controversy when organizers enforced a rule that prohibited players from participating in any other all-star games. NCAA rules allow seniors to play in two postseason all-star games, and several players who were selected for the Crab Bowl also wanted to participate in a local all-star game matching Prince George's County players against players from the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference. O'Connor said Crab Bowl participants will be free to play in a second all-star game this year, adding players who are unable to play in the Crab Bowl due to injury will be replaced. Kennedy said the Chesapeake Bowl will not prohibit players from participating in another all-star game.

Eleanor Roosevelt High coach Tom Green said the Chesapeake Bowl will provide a welcome opportunity for Prince George's County players to get noticed by college coaches.

"With so many all-star games, anytime it gives any student-athlete another avenue and opportunity to be seen is good," Green said. "Hopefully, we can get to see some of the other kids who don't get invited to other higher-profile all-star games. Some of those kids are right on the brink. Anytime it's an all-star game that's going on during the time where the college coaches get to evaluate is always a good thing."

Staff writer Seth Elkin contributed to this story.

E-mail Terron Hampton at thampton@gazette.net.