BEAUMONT -- Christine Michael always looked up to Jamaal Charles during his junior high school days in Beaumont. The West Brook running back never realized how much he and Jamaal might have in common.

When the area's top 2008 high school football heroes gather tonight at the Elegante's Grand Ballroom, the most certain winner of a 17th annual Willie Ray Smith award will be West Brook's Michael. The last time anyone probably was as much of a shoe-in would have been in 2005 when Port Arthur Memorial's Charles was a finalist.

That doesn't mean there's anything inferior about Lumberton's Jacob Hanna, Kirbyville's Aaron Hazelwood or West Orange-Stark's Ortavious Hypolite. It just means that Michael belongs among the greats in Southeast Texas. The 5-11, 202-pound Texas A&M pledge rushed for 3,927 yards and 80 touchdowns in his Bruins' high school career under head coach Craig Stump.

This year's defensive award should carry a bit more suspense. The four finalists arguably are more tightly bunched. They include WO-S end Kevin Robinson, Beaumont Central linebacker William Jones, Beaumont Ozen linebacker Justin Isadore and Kirbyville linebacker Broderick Jackson.

Ray Woodard probably would love to have all of those young men eventually become Lamar Cardinals' football players. The head football coach at Lamar University will serve as tonight's guest speaker. The Smith awards program begins tonight at 6:30 p.m.

This year's program is sponsored by the Beaumont Founders Lions Club, BASF Fina Petrochemical and KFDM-TV Channel 6.

A panel of area sportswriters and sportscasters were asked to review a list of area school nominees submitted by area coaches. The media members picked four offensive and four defensive finalists in early December.

Those same news media representatives were required to vote a second time to choose a winner from the four offensive and defensive finalists. Although media members do not know the award winners, they know it would be hard to pick against Michael, one of the state's top 10 recruits according to Rivals.com's national recruiting service.

Michael committed to Texas A&M last February but de-committed in the spring. He selected to A&M again on Jan. 3 right before kickoff of the U.S. Army All-America Bowl in San Antonio. The A&M helmet was adjacent to Oklahoma's and LSU's helmets at the table but A&M was noticeably in the lead for Christine throughout most of the football season.

"Most of the attention about all of the recruiting process has died down now," Michael said a week ago at the Smith Awards press conference in the Elegante. "I know I'm comfortable with my decision. I prayed about it. And that's when I knew it was the right choice.... after I prayed about it."

Michael has continued to run and remain in good condition during the winter because he intends to run the 100, 200 and 400-meter dash this spring in track and field as a West Brook senior.

"You get the opportunity to coach a back like Christine once in your lifetime if you're lucky," West Brook's Stump said. "He's a fine young person besides being a great all-round player."

WILLIE RAY SMITH AWARDS WINNERS