THE SPORTS DESK
High School Notebook: Jackets making adjustment at QB
BY TAFT COGHILL JR.
The quarterback situation has become so dire for James Monroe football coach Rich Serbay he’s turned to extreme measures.
“Coach [Eddie] Haynes is going to be our quarterback this week,” Serbay joked. “We found out he has another year of eligibility left.”
Haynes was the starting quarterback at Stafford in the early 1980s. But all the offensive coordinator can do is offer knowledge to sophomore Jay Scroggins.
Scroggins will make his first-ever start for JM (4–0, 1–0 Battlefield District) against King George (4–0, 1–0) in a district showdown Friday night at Maury stadium.
Senior DeMontaz Brown, who helped lead JM to the Group AA, Division 3 state title game in 2011, has missed the start of the season with a knee injury he suffered in the offseason.
Senior Julian Bumbrey started the first four games, but went down with a knee injury in the second quarter of the Yellow Jackets’ 24–9 win over Eastern View last Friday.
Serbay said doctors first believed Bumbrey suffered a torn ACL and would be done for the season, but X–rays came back negative. Bumbrey will have an MRI today.
Brown began participating in non-contact drills this week, and Serbay hopes he returns Oct. 12 against Culpeper.
Even if Bumbrey’s MRI shows no torn ACL, he’s set to miss at least three weeks. His absence will perhaps be felt more on the defensive side of the ball. He was a first-team All-Area cornerback last season when he returned five interceptions for touchdowns.
“He’s crushed, and the whole team is down in the dumps about it,” Serbay said. “He’s one of the most popular kids on the team and in the school. To see him walking around on crutches is depressing.”
The Yellow Jackets also lost starting running back Adrian Boone indefinitely to an ankle injury and starting tight end/defensive end Brad Davis to a leg injury.
“Our philosophy this week,” Serbay said, “is ‘next man up.’”
MANY HAPPY RETURNS
King George athletic director Alex Fisher said 2,200 people attended the Foxes’ first football game in their new stadium last week.
“We’re very happy with the turnout,” Fisher said. “Stands were full 30 minutes before the game, on both sides.”
Fisher said the Foxes had a few minor issues to clean up before the next home game, Oct. 5 against Spotsylvania. It will be homecoming and Fisher expects another sellout.
Fisher said there were often long waits for tickets, so he wants to add another person to handle admissions. He said there were also traffic issues and some people wandering in places they shouldn’t have been.
Fisher said he sought feedback from the community and the comments were mostly positive.
“It was like a small-college atmosphere,” Fisher said. “That’s something we haven’t had around here in a long time.”
LIONS WANT HAMILTON
DaeSean Hamilton didn’t have much success in Mountain View’s 35–13 loss to North Stafford earlier this month. The Wildcats’ senior wide receiver managed just 39 total yards, including a late 11-yard touchdown run.
Still, it didn’t deter Penn State from offering him a scholarship. Nittany Lions’ wide receivers coach Stan Hixon was in attendance for the game, which was one day before Penn State visited Virginia.
The Nittany Lions later became the 12th Division I program to extend a scholarship offer to Hamilton. His top five choices, however, are Duke, Illinois, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
Taft Coghill Jr.: 540/374-5526
tcoghill@freelancestar.com
