said. "He's the guy, he's the picture of what you want in a football pretty athletic, he runs the ball really well, and it has a little bit of a natural pop coming out of his hand," Thomas said.
"WE HAVE SEVERAL THREE-YEAR STARTERS WHO'VE BEEN THROUGH THE BATTLES AND WORKED THEIR TAILS OFF TO BUILD THIS THING. NOW, IT'S TIME TO REAP THE REWARDS FROM ALL THAT HARD WORK."
"The strides he's made from his freshman year to his junior year are tremendous. He just needs to play within himself and under-
Senior running back Zavion Finney (5-11, 185) is lightning in a bottle. He rushed for 1,343 yards and 13 touchdowns last season athletic and physical." Senior Tanner Wingrath, the top receiver on the team, has battled a hip injury for several months, but should be good to go for the
Leonard and senior Jordan Fraction anchor the interior of the defen-
sive line, junior Terry Stovall gets the nod at middle linebacker, and he'll The secondary returns intact from last year — senior safeties Nick Redcay and Hunter Vieth, and senior twins Jyson and Nekhi Walker at cornerback.
The Jays — who were directed by Pete Adkins for 37 years — — LePage to Walker to Bailey to Wells from 2017-2021. When Thomas "When you go through something like that," Thomas said, "it's not just a one-year setback, it's not just two years, you're setting the program back many years. "It's not going to turn around overnight. It's going to take everyone being on the same page, and to be honest with you, sometimes you have to be patient because it can take years to get things going in the right direction." There are good signs. The Junior Jays football program, starting in - "We're getting consistency throughout the program," Thomas said, "then there's also the reality that you've got to have the right kids at the right time at the right positions, because there's a whole lot of great competition out there. Do I want to get back to the point where everybody's looking at us and saying, 'THEY'RE the competition'?
"Absolutely, but we're not there yet, and you have to have that understanding."
Adkins Stadium wasn't built in a day, after all. "We have a bunch of really, really good kids who are in this for the right reasons," Thomas continued. "These are kids you want to be around. You're excited to come to practice every day and enjoy the game of football with them. "We have several three-year starters who've been through the to reap the rewards from all that hard work."
28 /// September 2026
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