The 2015 version of The Selma Times-Journal’s Gridiron magazine won’t be released until Aug. 28, but Friday we learned which two athletes will be on the cover. Selma football player Aderick Moore and Keith cheerleader Euneka Tower received 2,052 votes — the third highest total in the three-year history of the contest — to win this year’s vote.

“It’s truly an honor and a blessing to be on the front page of this magazine,” Moore said. “It took a lot of hard work to get there.”

The duo held off second place Dallas County’s Tommy Kendrick and Morgan Academy’s Owen Robertson, who finished with 1,949 votes.  Third place was Meadowview Christian’s Tyler Sebren and Selma’s Nautica Davis with 1,204 votes.

Moore said his entire family got involved in the vote, with many of them keeping late hours to make sure he and Tower won the contest.

“They were very into it and we stayed up many late nights. I think this whole week we’ve barely got any sleep trying to get votes,” Moore said. “I just thank my family and friends just for that.”

Through the contest, Moore said he’d talked to long lost friends and family members that don’t live nearby.

“I actually reunited with some of my family members from out of town and classmates that transferred to different towns and different cities,” Moore said. “I actually got a chance to reunite with them through this experience.”

All seven high schools in Dallas County were involved in the vote.  Moore said the contest shows how much the community really gets behind area schools.

“Anything at Selma High School going in a posiitve direction, you can count the community in behind it,” he said. “I just thank them for that.”

Tower will be the second consecutive Keith cheerleader on the cover of Gridiron, which is the Times-Journal’s yearly high school football preview magazine.

“This is my first time being on a magazine,” Tower said. “I’m just excited.”

Southside’s Kentravius Moore and Meadowview Christian’s Elizabeth McNeil finished fourth with 820 votes; Morgan Academy’s Harrison Adams and Ellwood Christian’s Eyana Cowan were fifth with 762 votes; Keith’s Morris Collins and Southside’s Aminah Drane finished sixth with 582 votes and Ellwood Christian’s Rayford Michell and Dallas County’s Hannah Testas were seventh with 573 votes.

The contest ran on the Times-Journal’s Facebook page starting on Monday, July 27 and ended Friday afternoon at 5 p.m.