Twenty years later,
Guthrie’s players took the last-second loss to Douglass personally. And some masked their feelings better than others.
“And we swore after Douglass, nobody’s beating us again. We swore to that,” Webb said. “We knew after the look on DeMarko Jones’ face after that game. We was in for (a) battle. I saw (it) in his eyes.”
Webb said Jones trotted to the sideline with a look on his face that communicated a simple thought.
Never again. When Jones, a team captain, set out to do something, others followed.
“He was always a leader,” Webb said. “He took control of his huddle and always set the tone for us. We fed off him. He should have been a first-ballot Hall of Fame QB over anybody. He taught QBs how to be a QB in Guthrie.”
Jones was a natural leader. Team captain Russell Rush, one of the Blue Jays’ star linebackers, remembers casting his vote for Jones when coaches handed out pieces of paper in the offseason for players to write down their pick for captain.
“(Jones) could pull it, he could pass it,” Rush said. “Once we did that they were unstoppable.”
Once the offense changed, the Blue Jays turned a corner.
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