on The rise

By zachary genus

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (SCPDA) —  Stanton College Preparatory School’s football program is known, not just at Stanton, but around the city of Jacksonville, for losing game after game. For years, the Blue Devils have struggled to win more than a handful of games per season, sometimes not winning at all. For students at Stanton and citizens of Duval County, the hot start to the Blue Devils’ 2017 football season was a surprise. The Blue Devils won their first four games of the regular season and saw more success in the first few weeks of the 2017–2018 season than in almost 20 years. This drastic change in the program’s success has brought hope for the future of the Blue Devils football program.

“Football is different here now,” said boys’ varsity football Coach Mike Healey. “Football is not a second-class citizen anymore. We expect every season from now on to be a winning one.”

Under the leadership of Coach Healey, who just finished coaching for his third year, the football team has greater aspirations. Prior to Coach Healey joining the program, the team had not won a game in three and a half years; they are now beginning to set their sights on higher goals.

“The next step is to start winning district games and making playoff runs,” said Coach Healey.

For years, students at Stanton were accustomed to seeing their football team lose repeatedly. Due to these expectations which have come with their subpar performances, the success of the Blue Devils early in this season has become a story worth telling, even showing up as a part of the “Heart of the Game” segment on First Coast News on ABC. With the publicity that has come as a byproduct of the football team’s wins, there are much greater expectations from spectators which can have an effect on the psyche of individuals on the team.  

“Now that we’ve started winning, we get more chances to prove ourselves, but we also get a lot of pressure with it. People are expecting us to win now,” said sophomore Jackson Spencer, a cornerback for the varsity football team. “Once we won the first couple of games it just kind of snowballed, but we’ve started losing and the pressure from that has really gotten to us too. We just go out each week and try to prove ourselves more.”

Players have expressed that the feeling which comes with winning has motivated them to start taking football more seriously. This dedicated approach to the football program may be the fuel needed to help the Blue Devils to sustain their recent success on the field.

“Football is becoming more of a commitment now, you’re seeing guys put in the extra work before school, after school and trying to come to practice,” said senior Laterrian Moore, a varsity quarterback for the varsity football team, in a September 2017 interview with First Coast News.

As players have begun to take a more serious approach to football, wins have become an expectation. The Blue Devils are 43–166 since bringing varsity football in 1998. In Coach Healey’s first season in 2015, the team managed to win just one game. For the first time since the reintroduction of the varsity football team in 1998, they have exceeded 5 regular season wins, finishing with a record of 6–4. In future seasons, the football team is looking to bring back the success they had under Coach James P. Small who led the team from 1934-1967. Under Coach Small, the team was able to capture a handful of city championships and two black state titles. The road to their winning season has not been an easy one and players believe this adversity has made the Blue Devils a stronger and more cohesive unit.

“The losses we have faced have fueled us to just prove to everyone that we are better than what people make us out to be,” said junior Kerry Darelus, a running back for the varsity football team. “Everyone thinks, ‘Oh Stanton, academics, academics, academics.’ People don’t really consider our athletics, so we were just trying to prove that we should be respected, and we did it on the field.”

Stanton had something to prove this year, not just to their opponents, but also to their student body fans. By finishing with their first winning record in 20 years, they believe they have proved that they are a force to be reckoned with. This success has given Coach Healey reason to hold an even stronger belief that the future is bright for football at Stanton. Despite many years of difficult losses, the Blue Devils get on the field each season and play the game they love. The dedication to the program over the years may finally be paying off. With each game, players become more accustomed to the pressure that comes with representing their school, and with each win, more motivated to work hard. Only time will tell if this unprecedented level of success can be sustained in future years, but win or lose, the Blue Devils will continue to fight.

This story appeared in Volume 34, Issue 2 of the Devil's Advocate, published in December 2017. Read the full issue here.