By BRET H. MCCORMICK, Journal Sports
One JT’s legacy is secure as the greatest high school football coach of all time.
The other JT is still early in the process of writing his own legacy.
The two will meet tonight in Alexandria with a trip to the Superdome and the LHSAA Prep Classic on the line.
John T. Curtis Jr., the legendary coach of John Curtis Christian School, is the winningest coach in U.S. high school football history. A member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, Curtis is one of just two coaches in the country to ever win more than 600 games, sitting atop that list with 630 and counting, and he has led the Patriots to 28 state championships during his 56-year coaching career.
Jaiden Tyrese Lindsey, meanwhile, is staking his claim as the greatest running back to ever suit up for Alexandria Senior High as he leads the Trojans during a record-breaking senior season in which he’s gained almost 2,500 yards from scrimmage.
The unbeaten and second-seeded Trojans (12-0) were expected by many to be here, playing in the Division I Select semifinals, especially after piling up impressive victory after impressive victory on their way to claiming the District 2-5A championship.
Lindsey, who signed to play collegiately at LSU on Wednesday, has compiled over 2,100 rushing yards on the season with 31 rushing touchdowns. He has rushed for 100-plus yards in 10 consecutive games, gone over the 200-yard mark five times, and has scored nine touchdowns in two playoff games.
“He’s obviously a talented young man,” Curtis said of Lindsey. “He has excellent vision. His feet and his eyes work together extremely well. He’s explosive when he finds the hole. … He’s capable of putting his foot in the ground and changing direction really quickly.”
Curtis went on to say the Trojans’ second running back, senior Vaughn Darbon, is another player the Patriots must focus on and slow down Friday night.
“I think they probably have as good a 1-2 punch as we’ve seen in a while,” Curtis said.
ASH coach Thomas Bachman said while there has been talk amongst the seniors about setting a new standard and leaving a legacy, he hasn’t had any specific talks with Lindsey about his own personal legacy and what could be gained with two more victories.
“He’s internally motivated,” Bachman said. “I think he wants to have success. There’s been no extra talk in that regard. The kids know what’s at stake. The kids know what they’ve worked for.”
While the Trojans have had their eyes set on the Superdome for quite some time, not many people outside of River Ridge, the tiny New Orleans suburb located in Jefferson Parish that is home to John Curtis, had the Patriots still playing this late in the playoffs.
Despite its long history as the most consistent football program in Louisiana, John Curtis finished the regular season with a losing record and in the middle of the pack in the Catholic League.
The Patriots (7-5) earned the No. 19 seed in the Division I Select playoffs after losing their opener to the Nacoochee School of Rabun Gap, Georgia, which won the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association championship, and then going 3-4 in District 9-5A action, losing to Rummel, Jesuit, Edna Karr and St. Augustine.
Curtis said he and his coaching staff knew the Patriots would face “some growing pains” on offense this season with eight new starters and replacing a quarterback who started for almost three years.
They struggled with turnovers throughout the season, something that Curtis said hasn’t been a factor during the playoffs, and leaned on a strong defense that has given up 20 or more points only four times this season.
The defense is led by the inside linebacker tandem of senior Hayden Delatte (106 tackles) and junior Jeffrey Curtis (103 tackles, 13 TFLs). Senior defensive lineman Logan Barnes and junior outside linebacker Lane LaCron have five sacks each, while junior cornerback Trey Brown has four interceptions and nine passes defensed to lead the secondary.
Offensively, the Patriots spread the ball around with their patented split-back veer. Senior quarterback Reggie Johnson leads the team with 738 rushing yards and eight touchdowns, while the running-back quartet of juniors Jacobi Boudreaux and Nate Alario and seniors A.J. Smith and Jack Corcoran have combined for 1,826 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Curtis said the competitiveness of the Catholic League, generally regarded along with ASH’s District 2-5A as the toughest districts in the state this year, prepared the Patriots to advance to the semifinals for the 23rd time in the past 25 years.
“A lot of people were on social media and talking about if this is the end of the world and that kind of stuff,” Curtis said. “The kids did a good job of tuning that out and staying true to the process.”
Curtis has ties to Rapides Parish. Both of his parents were alumni of Louisiana Christian University, then known as Louisiana College, as are Curtis and his wife, the late Lydia Curtis. Curtis transferred to LC in 1968 from the University of Arkansas and played football for the Wildcats.
In the 50-plus years since, he’s only played once before in Rapides Parish, when the Patriots faced Bolton in the Class 4A semifinals in 2000. This will be the first football meeting ever between ASH and John Curtis.
Bachman said he doesn’t “sense any added pressure” playing against John Curtis because the coaches focus on the opponent’s personnel and schemes rather than the name on the jersey.
“It’s just never been about the opponent,” he said. “We’ve never spent a whole lot of time talking about those things.”
Curtis said the Trojans are “a really, really solid offensive football team that doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses with what they can’t do.” They are capable of creating explosive plays and putting pressure on their opponents, and it’s shown on the scoreboard as the Trojans have scored at least 40 points in every game.
He said the Patriots must “try to limit the big play” and not get discouraged when the Trojans do hit explosive plays. They must play well defensively in order to give their offense the opportunity to score enough points.
“The quality of their play and their coaching is special, and we’re gonna have to do a great job defensively,” Curtis said.
“It’s just gonna come down to one possession at a time,” Bachman said. “… You try to make the most of it when you have the football and you’re trying to get off the field on defense.”