Jefferson athletic director and head football coach Antwain Jimmerson is pleased with the outcomes of sports that were able to finish and said he had high expectations for the ones that were cancelled due to the coronavirus.
“We had a fun year,” Jimmerson said. “Football and basketball had a great run. The guys (basketball) made it to the regional tournament and faced the defending state champions in the regional tournament. There’s definitely no shame in losing to those guys but our kids kind of set a goal of getting down to the Alamodome.
“They had a picture in the locker room that I think said, ‘Why not us?’ Those kids did a great job.
“Then you look at the girls side, Tierrani Johnson had a chance to go back to state as well,” Jimmerson continued.
“We’re fortunate that she’ll be returning. She had a chance to go back to the state track meet again. She’s a sibling of the Johnson twins (Bryson and Travon).”
Several athletes from Jefferson plan to attend college and continue their athletic careers at the next level.
“To have a baseball player, basketball players, track athletes, football athletes, all sign, that’s really, really good,” Jimmerson said.
“On the girls side, the program is so steady. Our numbers are really good. Coach Allen (girls athletic director Mark Allen) feels like he’s really got a great staff now.
“On the girls side, we’ve got a staff that’s been together for a long time now as far as the head coaches for softball, track and even in volleyball. So we’ve got some established head coaches bringing more continuity so kids know the expectations.”
Jimmerson added the 2020 class did a lot for the athletic program as a whole.
“With our group of seniors, we had a lot of experience coming into the year,” he offered. “Those kids had put in a lot of work coming in, so it was very exciting seeing them have the success that they had in our various sports. You look at somebody like Landon Fuquay, he’s a four-year-varsity kicker for us and he was also looking forward to going back to regionals in golf. He’s just one of those seniors who has had a lot of success throughout his high school career.
“It’s a really good group of not only players but citizens as well, kids who went out and played as hard as they could.
“The senior class gave us a joy of watching them play,” he continued. “They enjoyed the game. They enjoyed competing and they’ll always be remembered. It’s been a good group. We’re going to miss them. We had a lot of kids who are going to play at the next level.”
Jimmerson said he looks forward to starting workouts this next week and is optimistic of the future of Jefferson athletics.
