December 4, 2009
Although the weather was horrible (temperature in the 30′s, constant rain mixed with snow and wind) I went to see a high school running back for Chesapeake, Virginia’s Oscar Smith High School. He’s 5-7 180 speedster J. C. Coleman, a tenth-grader who has been nationally-ranked for several years in the 400-meters in track and field. He’s a slippery runner who uses his small size and zip to squeeze through small holes and then just burn past defenders. He appears in the top two photos on the left and the right, wearing number 4 in the white jersey, and also in the second photo from the top on the left side of this page.
I was going to see a state semi-final football game that would prove to be one of the best high school football games I’ve ever seen! It involved two Division 6 teams. In the state of Virginia there are 6 Divisions, and Division 6 is for the high schools with the largest classifications. Oscar Smith High of Chesapeake, VA had won 28 straight games, and was rated by two services as among the nation’s top 7 high school football teams! They were playing the home team, Thomas Dale High of Chester, Virginia. Thomas Dale High’s junior running back, Demetrik Jackson, a 5-11 180 junior who wore jersey number 12, was another possible Division 1-A prospect to watch. Thomas Dale High wasn’t rated anything, actually.
Oscar Smith had one of the nation’s best senior quarterbacks in 6-2 210 Phillip Sims, who has verbally committed to the University of Alabama. He appears wearing jersey number 14 in the photo at right. J. C. Coleman appears again in the photo at left. I’m not sure why Oscar Smith, the number one-ranked team in Virginia, had to play on the road, but here they were, playing over 100 miles from home in a quagmire that figured to make their tremendous passing game difficult to employ. Writing down notes about this game was almost impossible: the rain made everything drenched! Haha. Once I got out of the car, my notes dwindled down to only what I could write and then turn to the inside of my notebook. The stands were just 1/4 full when the 2:30 P.M. game started.
Thomas Dale High took a shocking 6-0 lead at the 10:26 mark of the first quarter on a run by Demetrick Jackson. And then, Oscar Smith fumbled the ball after a short pass on their next posession! Demetrick Jackson scored a second time at the 3:04 mark and the score was 14-0! Demetrick Jackson appears in the photo below left, wearing jersey number 12. I was sitting on the Oscar Smith High side, and there was silence, except for a few fans laughing in shock. But I could sense that they were confident that Oscar Smith would come back and win. And why not? They had won 28 straight! However, this game seemed different to me than other Oscar Smith games of the past few years. For one thing, the quagmire of mud was making it imposslbe for Oscar Smith High’s Phillip Sims to pass the ball. He also did the punting for Oscar Smith High, and is shown punting in the photo below right. I could see that the Thomas Dale offensive line was dominating the Oscar Smith defensive line. Thomas Dale’s offensive lineman were more athletic-looking.
At this point, my notes are soaked with water from the game, and getting even more-difficult to read! At the 2:41 mark of the 3rd period, J. C. Coleman, scored from the 6-yard line, and it was now 14-7, Thomas Dale High. Demetrikus Jackson is at least a Division 1-AA prospect, maybe better. (Division 1-A is now known as the “Football Bowl Subdivision” and is composed of big-time schools such as those in the Big Ten, ACC, Pac 10, etc. It is abbreviated “FBS.” Division 1-AA is the old name for what is now called the “Football Championship Subdivision” and is composed of schools like Richmond, Appalachian State, James Madison and William and Mary. It is abbreviated “FCS.”)
The two schools went in to overtime at 14-14. Oscar Smith pulled ahead 17-14. Demetrick Jackson ran around the end for the winning score and pandimonium broke out. This was as good a high school football game as I’ve ever seen. The mud and the home field advantage might have been the difference, but so what? That’s high school football! Demetrick Jackson finished the game with 23 carries for 179 yards. With one game left in his junior season, he now has 179 carries for 1,189 yards and 8 touchdowns this year! His fellow Division 1-A prospect, sophomore J. C. Coleman, ran for 194 yards on 30 carries. He finishes his spectacular sophomore season with 1,225 yards rushing on 203 carries, good for 16 TD’s! Look for him to at least make 2nd-team All-State as a mere sophomore! Next week I’m going to see Thomas Dale play Lake Braddock High in the Division 6 championship game in Charlottesville, Virginia in Scott Stadium!
