FEATURE
Jesuit football
captures its
first State
Championship in
53 years with the
first perfect season
– 15-0 – in school
history. The Tigers
finish ranked in the
Top 10 nationally
in a “Dream
Season” that was
bookended by a
shocking upset in
September and
a stunning 4th
quarter comeback
in the State Final.
On a Wednesday morning on the
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Week 2 of the nascent high school
football season, Wharton High pulled
out of its game vs. Jesuit, which was
scheduled for just two days later, due to
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At the same time, about four hours
away, the same thing was happening to
prep football superpower Fort Lauderdale
St. Thomas Aquinas. Their Friday
night opponent also cancelled.
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ranked No. 6 nationally, had just traveled
to Baltimore for their season opener
vs. St. Frances Academy, a clash of
MaxPreps national Top 10 titans. Aquinas
downed St. Frances, 38-23. That hurdle
cleared, the Raiders now had realistic
visions of a national title. But, suddenly,
16 JESUIT PERSPECTIVES • WINTER 2021-22
they had a hole in their schedule.
So, as Jesuit athletic director Terry Rupp
������ and head coach Matt Thompson
were burning up Florida’s cell towers
looking for an opponent for the Tigers, so
too were the Aquinas coaches.
They quickly found each other, and
– suddenly – the game was agreed to
in principle on Wednesday evening:
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Stadium in two days to meet the Tigers.
“Immediately after the news, our
practice went from lackluster to almost a
football game in and of itself,” said safety
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By Thursday morning it was a done
deal as Aquinas received approval of its
short-notice travel plans to Tampa and
the contract was signed. Word spread
like hot gossip, and a perceptible current
rippled through the Himes Avenue
campus.
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Tampa, and the dragonslayers had just
36 hours to get ready.
Rupp and Thompson had pulled the
trigger on the boldest of bold moves,
and the course of a once-in-a-half-century
season was set in motion.
The coaching staff, led by
Thompson, in his 9th season at
Jesuit, defensive coordinator
Darrell Palmer, and new offensive
coordinator Don Mesick, stayed up
into the wee hours poring over video of
Aquinas.
At Thursday’s practice, the Tigers
locked in with a Tom Brady-like laser
focus. Defensive end ������������������������������������
remembers it being the longest practice
of the year, with everyone on point.
Friday, there was a buzz at Jesuit all
day, and by kickoff, following an epic
The
Dream
Season
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