Reversal of Fortune
Collegiate’s 2003 football season was going, well, nowhere.
In fact, it was on a collision course with forgettable.
Try as they might, the past two years, the Cougars had won just four of 15 games and opened that fall 17 years ago with 19-7 losses to St. Anne’s-Belfield and Mills Godwin on consecutive Fridays. To say that the situation was dire – at least from a wins-and-losses standpoint – is an understatement.
Then, on September 25, the Cougars traveled to Episcopal in Alexandria to meet a strong, experienced Maroon squad that had whomped them 35-7 the year before.
The outlook was hardly bright. Because of the havoc and power outages created by Hurricane Isabel, the Cougars hadn’t played in 12 days, and their practice schedule had been disrupted. And they – indeed the Collegiate community – were still processing the death of Nick Adams, a member of the senior class, of injuries he suffered in an automobile accident a month earlier.
Yet here they were, with just under a minute remaining, leading 30-29. The home team was driving though, and, as the clock wound down, it was nearing the red zone where one defensive slip-up, one missed assignment would send the Cougars back down I-95 sitting at 0-3 with little relief in sight.
Then, their fortunes changed. Man, did they change.
On third and short from the 25, the EHS quarterback rolled right in search of his split end streaking toward the end zone. At the same time, cornerback Jimmy Gift, who had deep outside responsibility on the Cover-3 alignment, saw that the quarterback was under intense pressure and instinctively shadowed the receiver as he broke his pattern and drifted into the middle.
As the quarterback threw awkwardly off his back foot, Gift, timing the pass perfectly, stepped in front of the receiver, intercepted at the 5, and returned the prize to the 15.
The Cougars ran out the clock.
“That win was pivotal,” said head coach Charlie McFall at the time. “It definitely gave us confidence and momentum.”
How much confidence? How much momentum?
From that watershed moment, the Cougars ran the table, finished 8-2, and secured the Prep League and VISAA championships.
“Obviously, we were really, really pleased,” said McFall, who coached the Cougars from 1986 through 2006 and whose ledger reads 127-66-1 with five league and four consecutive state titles. “We had some good guys who worked hard and played hard. And we were pretty fortunate with our coaching staff (which included Mark Palyo, Trip Featherston, Don Pate, Larry Jarman, and Jim Hickey).”
So how did the Cougars do it? How did they go from 4-17 to become, seemingly overnight, the top independent school team in the state and one of the best at any level in Central Virginia?
Peyton Stinson has a pretty good idea.
He was the quarterback during that dream season. A senior who had missed most of the previous year with a broken elbow he suffered in the final scrimmage, completed 135 of 222 passes for 1,973 yards and 17 touchdowns against only 10 interceptions.
He was named first team All-Prep and All-VISAA.
Here’s his idea. Actually ideas.
“Some divine intervention occurred,” he said recently via phone from Atlanta, where he serves as director of strategic land group for SSG Realty Partners. “Hurricane Isabel came through on the week we were supposed to play St. Alban’s. School was closed. It was a different kind of week. We had some time that was beneficial to us.
“The second thing was that we changed our offense. We were skinny, scrawny kids who couldn’t play power football. We were quick and had an incredible depth of receivers and running backs, so we started running more of a spread type offense. That fit our skill set better. We had five guys who could catch the ball. There’re usually not five guys on the defensive side who can catch up.
“And we had (fullback) Marcus Brooks, who ended up being my personal protector. It’s pretty hard to get around a 6-6, 240-pound guy. He would always be on my left or right, so if anybody did happen to get through the line, they had to get through him before they got to me.”
Then there were some words of motivation and wisdom, delivered by long-time kicking team coach Larry Jarman.
“He pulled us aside after one of our practices and gave us a much-needed pep talk,” Stinson recalled. “The basis of the conversation was You guys can be great together. I believe you can accomplish great things. That was something we really needed.”
Now 1-2 but with a new offense and renewed motivation, the Cougars upset Woodberry Forest 14-10, then knocked off Benedictine 42-8, Fork Union 24-14, Norfolk Academy 45-13, and St. Christopher’s 28-3 to finish the regular season 6-2.
“Those first two games, we would get on the bus and be quiet until we got there,” Stinson said. “That wasn’t our makeup. Most of us had known each other since kindergarten, some even before that. We had a long relationship built around being relaxed and humorous. The mentality we took was having fun. We didn’t add additional pressure trying to be serious, trying to be who we weren’t. We still focused on the game but were a lot more relaxed.”
In the state semis, the Cougars squeaked past St. Stephen’s-St. Agnes 14-13, then won their first-ever state title with a 31-13 win over St. Christopher’s before what might have been the largest, loudest, and most spirited crowd in school history.
How did that accomplishment feel for the quarterback who was the linchpin?
“A family friend asked me that shortly after the game,” Stinson said. “I just said, ‘It feels great.’ It just wasn’t within the realm of possibility at the beginning of the season. We didn’t even think about it. It was just staying relaxed, having fun, and playing our final year together. Truthfully, my mindset was never hampered by stress. Knowing our guys and having confidence in our offense relaxed me.”
In addition to Stinson, Pierce Redfern (place kicker), Bart Tracy (wide receiver), J.C. Fain (wide receiver and defensive back), Harry Ludeman (offensive line), and Gift (defensive back) were voted first-team all-state and All-Prep.
Brooks (defensive end) received All-Prep and second-team all-state recognition, and Carter Keeney (offensive line) was All-Prep. Stinson, Fain (as a receiver), and Redfern were named to the Richmond Times-Dispatch All-Metro second team, and Tracy, Ludeman, Brooks and Gift received honorable mention.
Brooks (Brown University) and Gift (Washington & Lee) went on to play college football.
Though Stinson and his teammates have lived another lifetime since that transcendent fall of their youth, many remain in regular contact in person and via text and email chain. They reminisce and, as is their wont, never hesitate to razz each other as they did when they were kids.
“It’s certainly the textbook Collegiate relationship where you build long-term friendships that continue through life,” Stinson said. “And here we are, 17 years later, and we’re still really close. They’ve reminded me that every quarterback after me (notably Russell Wilson, Jake McGee, and Wilton Speight) went Division I, and the best I got was intramural football (at the University of Georgia). If I need to be put in my place, they’ll bring that up. A lot of us are in a fantasy football league together. It keeps us together. If you let up, somebody will get on you. It’s the same old, same old…which is really nice.”
That said, they don’t live in the past.
“The truth of the matter was that we were a bunch of nobodys, but we knew each other well,” Stinson said. “It’s pretty impressive to take a rag-tag group like us and accomplish what we did. Your goal posts have to keep moving in life. It certainly was an experience that not everybody gets to have. We were lucky not only to win but to build friendships that have lasted all this time.”
~Weldon Bradshaw
(Since the 2003 football season, the Cougars have won the VISAA title in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2016 and the Prep League in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2017.)
Back
Try as they might, the past two years, the Cougars had won just four of 15 games and opened that fall 17 years ago with 19-7 losses to St. Anne’s-Belfield and Mills Godwin on consecutive Fridays. To say that the situation was dire – at least from a wins-and-losses standpoint – is an understatement.
Then, on September 25, the Cougars traveled to Episcopal in Alexandria to meet a strong, experienced Maroon squad that had whomped them 35-7 the year before.
The outlook was hardly bright. Because of the havoc and power outages created by Hurricane Isabel, the Cougars hadn’t played in 12 days, and their practice schedule had been disrupted. And they – indeed the Collegiate community – were still processing the death of Nick Adams, a member of the senior class, of injuries he suffered in an automobile accident a month earlier.
Yet here they were, with just under a minute remaining, leading 30-29. The home team was driving though, and, as the clock wound down, it was nearing the red zone where one defensive slip-up, one missed assignment would send the Cougars back down I-95 sitting at 0-3 with little relief in sight.
Then, their fortunes changed. Man, did they change.
On third and short from the 25, the EHS quarterback rolled right in search of his split end streaking toward the end zone. At the same time, cornerback Jimmy Gift, who had deep outside responsibility on the Cover-3 alignment, saw that the quarterback was under intense pressure and instinctively shadowed the receiver as he broke his pattern and drifted into the middle.
As the quarterback threw awkwardly off his back foot, Gift, timing the pass perfectly, stepped in front of the receiver, intercepted at the 5, and returned the prize to the 15.
The Cougars ran out the clock.
“That win was pivotal,” said head coach Charlie McFall at the time. “It definitely gave us confidence and momentum.”
How much confidence? How much momentum?
From that watershed moment, the Cougars ran the table, finished 8-2, and secured the Prep League and VISAA championships.
“Obviously, we were really, really pleased,” said McFall, who coached the Cougars from 1986 through 2006 and whose ledger reads 127-66-1 with five league and four consecutive state titles. “We had some good guys who worked hard and played hard. And we were pretty fortunate with our coaching staff (which included Mark Palyo, Trip Featherston, Don Pate, Larry Jarman, and Jim Hickey).”
So how did the Cougars do it? How did they go from 4-17 to become, seemingly overnight, the top independent school team in the state and one of the best at any level in Central Virginia?
Peyton Stinson has a pretty good idea.
He was the quarterback during that dream season. A senior who had missed most of the previous year with a broken elbow he suffered in the final scrimmage, completed 135 of 222 passes for 1,973 yards and 17 touchdowns against only 10 interceptions.
He was named first team All-Prep and All-VISAA.
Here’s his idea. Actually ideas.
“Some divine intervention occurred,” he said recently via phone from Atlanta, where he serves as director of strategic land group for SSG Realty Partners. “Hurricane Isabel came through on the week we were supposed to play St. Alban’s. School was closed. It was a different kind of week. We had some time that was beneficial to us.
“The second thing was that we changed our offense. We were skinny, scrawny kids who couldn’t play power football. We were quick and had an incredible depth of receivers and running backs, so we started running more of a spread type offense. That fit our skill set better. We had five guys who could catch the ball. There’re usually not five guys on the defensive side who can catch up.
“And we had (fullback) Marcus Brooks, who ended up being my personal protector. It’s pretty hard to get around a 6-6, 240-pound guy. He would always be on my left or right, so if anybody did happen to get through the line, they had to get through him before they got to me.”
Then there were some words of motivation and wisdom, delivered by long-time kicking team coach Larry Jarman.
“He pulled us aside after one of our practices and gave us a much-needed pep talk,” Stinson recalled. “The basis of the conversation was You guys can be great together. I believe you can accomplish great things. That was something we really needed.”
Now 1-2 but with a new offense and renewed motivation, the Cougars upset Woodberry Forest 14-10, then knocked off Benedictine 42-8, Fork Union 24-14, Norfolk Academy 45-13, and St. Christopher’s 28-3 to finish the regular season 6-2.
“Those first two games, we would get on the bus and be quiet until we got there,” Stinson said. “That wasn’t our makeup. Most of us had known each other since kindergarten, some even before that. We had a long relationship built around being relaxed and humorous. The mentality we took was having fun. We didn’t add additional pressure trying to be serious, trying to be who we weren’t. We still focused on the game but were a lot more relaxed.”
In the state semis, the Cougars squeaked past St. Stephen’s-St. Agnes 14-13, then won their first-ever state title with a 31-13 win over St. Christopher’s before what might have been the largest, loudest, and most spirited crowd in school history.
How did that accomplishment feel for the quarterback who was the linchpin?
“A family friend asked me that shortly after the game,” Stinson said. “I just said, ‘It feels great.’ It just wasn’t within the realm of possibility at the beginning of the season. We didn’t even think about it. It was just staying relaxed, having fun, and playing our final year together. Truthfully, my mindset was never hampered by stress. Knowing our guys and having confidence in our offense relaxed me.”
In addition to Stinson, Pierce Redfern (place kicker), Bart Tracy (wide receiver), J.C. Fain (wide receiver and defensive back), Harry Ludeman (offensive line), and Gift (defensive back) were voted first-team all-state and All-Prep.
Brooks (defensive end) received All-Prep and second-team all-state recognition, and Carter Keeney (offensive line) was All-Prep. Stinson, Fain (as a receiver), and Redfern were named to the Richmond Times-Dispatch All-Metro second team, and Tracy, Ludeman, Brooks and Gift received honorable mention.
Brooks (Brown University) and Gift (Washington & Lee) went on to play college football.
Though Stinson and his teammates have lived another lifetime since that transcendent fall of their youth, many remain in regular contact in person and via text and email chain. They reminisce and, as is their wont, never hesitate to razz each other as they did when they were kids.
“It’s certainly the textbook Collegiate relationship where you build long-term friendships that continue through life,” Stinson said. “And here we are, 17 years later, and we’re still really close. They’ve reminded me that every quarterback after me (notably Russell Wilson, Jake McGee, and Wilton Speight) went Division I, and the best I got was intramural football (at the University of Georgia). If I need to be put in my place, they’ll bring that up. A lot of us are in a fantasy football league together. It keeps us together. If you let up, somebody will get on you. It’s the same old, same old…which is really nice.”
That said, they don’t live in the past.
“The truth of the matter was that we were a bunch of nobodys, but we knew each other well,” Stinson said. “It’s pretty impressive to take a rag-tag group like us and accomplish what we did. Your goal posts have to keep moving in life. It certainly was an experience that not everybody gets to have. We were lucky not only to win but to build friendships that have lasted all this time.”
~Weldon Bradshaw
(Since the 2003 football season, the Cougars have won the VISAA title in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2016 and the Prep League in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2017.)
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