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.”