88 Blake Jones, Hanover Hawks
Year: Senior
Position: Defensive Line
Height/Weight: 6-0, 215
Performance: Jones had six tackles, two for loss, a sack and a deflection in a 28-7 win over No. 9 Atlee. The Hawks held the Raiders to 120 yards of offense.
For the season: Through eight games, Jones has 63 tackles, 23 for loss, seven pass deflections, three sacks and three forced fumbles.
Hand in ground: Jones started the season as middle linebacker after playing as a disruptive defensive lineman for two years. "We had injuries on d-line so I had to go back. I played middle linebacker the first half of the Patrick Henry game then down on the line the rest."
On Atlee game: "We just came together. It's pretty much what I said in
the interview. We never played like that. Getting three and outs every possession. I knew we were going to stop them every time. We were confident like no other game."
On Hanover career: "My freshman year when I was at Benedictine, I didn't even start JV. I transferred from Benedictine to Hanover, it was just too far of a drive. Coach [
Josh]
Just just kept pushing me and pushing me. I was never penciled in as a starter. All of a sudden I just clicked one day at practice. I was going up against
Ben Rogers, and one day I just clicked."
Funniest teammate: "Probably
Henry Reeves [sophomore defensive lineman]. He's just so dumb. He's just so stupid. He laughs at everything. He's so funny. He's a smart kid, but he laughs at anything."
On coach Just: "Just from what he does for me. He never gives you credit until you do something. If you get a complement, you know you've done something. After we lost to Tucker we thought we were dead. We knew that he would come back and helps us overcome that.
"It's all because of him. He keeps pushing us throughout. All the practices, how he pushes us to watch film. He just has that ability to make a team want it."
On Ohio University commitment: "It definitely inspires and shows all the hard work. [Just] says he hasn't been harder on anybody than me. Playing D-line and being severely undersized, it's always been the dream of mine. I thought it was such a dream and now it's come true. I owe all of it to coach Just. He pushed me to be the type of player that I am now." Jones is the first Hanover football player to receive a Division I scholarship.
Toughest opponent: "Myself honestly. I think after every game I'll be sitting, talking to my dad and say, 'I played like crap today. It's always in the back of my head, someone's coming up, someone's behind me. That's how I feel."
One person he'd love to meet: "
Lawrence Taylor. I admired him so much. The way he played football. I model my game after him."
Playoff push: Through eight weeks of games, Hanover holds the top playoff spot in Division 5. "First of all, every thing is a must-win now. We want to get that two-seed and possibly that one-seed. If Dinwiddie makes it, we don't want to end up going to Dinwiddie. We want that home-field advantage. We have to stay completely focused. Both these teams [Henrico, Armstrong] are dangerous."
One thing most don't know: "I can recite every line from Friday Night Lights. I can recite the whole speech from Al Pacino on Any Given Sunday."
- Stephen M. Lewis