In the wee small hours of Saturday morning, Aug. 30, 76 Ooltewah High School football players returned to their campus following a 24-20 victory at Murfreesboro Siegel a few hours earlier.
By coach Mac Bryan's estimate, 75 of those Owls headed home for a good night's sleep.
Then there was star junior linebacker Jeremiah Jackson, who is apparently the only true night Owl on the roster. As he has done almost every Saturday morning since February, Jackson rose at 4:30 in order to reach the Krystal restaurant on Brainerd Road by 5 a.m. His shift wouldn't end until after 4 o'clock that afternoon. A similar routine is repeated most Sundays.
"It helps me become a better man," Jackson said of his weekend workload. "It helps provide a few things for our family."
On the football field, the 6-1, 230-pounder has been providing the kind of athletic ability and leadership that should earn him a Division I scholarship a year from now. One need only look at Jackson's numbers in the Owls' 31-0 victory over Stone Memorial this past weekend -- 10 solo tackles, eight assists, four tackles for losses -- to understand why Bryan says the recruiting letters concerning Jackson, "arrive every day."
It also doesn't hurt that he earned a 4.0 GPA in the school's most recent grading period.
But almost every school still involved in the TSSAA playoffs has at least one player with Jackson's talent. What sadly separates Jackson from many is his home life, which has seen its share of struggles for years, but especially over the past 14 months, ever since his father abandoned Jeremiah, his four brothers and their mom, Natasha.
"I've been without a dad for a year and two months now," he said with little emotion. "And this past Sunday I lost my grandfather."
But just in case your eyes are still dry, this Jackson Five's troubles have been significantly worsened by Natasha's struggles with a digestive tract disorder that hospitalized her for a month, has zapped her strength for more than a year and further eroded the family's fragile finances.
"She's had a tough time, but she's strong-willed," Jackson said of his mom. "She's helped me make the right decisions. When I was younger, she wouldn't let me hang out with my older brothers at night. It's not that they were doing anything wrong, she just wanted me at home. She thinks I have a bright future, and she doesn't want me to make a mistake. So I try to follow the rules, stay out of trouble."
Perhaps because so much has been placed on his young shoulders, Jackson seems both older and wiser than the typical high school junior.
"Jeremiah's very helpful at work," said Krystal manager Jonathan Bell. "He's a cook and a cashier, and he's good at both. He gets lots of compliments. I've offered to change his shift, but he says he's fine where he is. I'm not a big football fan, but I try to keep up with Jeremiah."
Added teammate Jacob Keltch, who's disciplined enough to have become an Eagle Scout this past summer, "Jeremiah's a great player and a great leader. He's always pushing the team to do its best."
Most of us fall short of our best in one way or another. We're human, after all. We get tired and frustrated and sloppy. It's why Bryan doesn't hold practices or meetings of any kind for the Owls on Saturdays and Sundays.
"They need some time to themselves," he said.
But Jackson's spare time is all but nonexistent. There's school. There's football. There's work. Somehow, some way, he's found the strength to excel in all three, even joking about his Saturday shift, "My teammates are usually getting up about the time I get off work."
Said Bryan, "The thing that sometimes bothers you as a coach is when you have someone with talent who doesn't see you have to have the other part, that you have to commit to it -- the academics, the conditioning, the teamwork -- and that's hard. You've got to be that guy 24/7. That's Jeremiah."
It's too much, of course. Teenagers shouldn't have to worry about becoming better men and providing for their families. They should be sleeping until the sun's high in the sky following a late-night football road trip. But perhaps such effort and maturity will convince a Tennessee or Ole Miss or the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to reward Jackson with a scholarship, given that all three are already recruiting him.
If nothing else, it's slightly improved his sleep schedule this weekend after the team returns from Rhea County late Friday.
Said Bell, his Krystal manager, of Jackson's Saturday's schedule: "Jeremiah doesn't start until 7 a.m. this Saturday."
Slacker.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com