Life is pretty good for Jay Person these days.
The 6-foot-3, 230-pound University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football standout graduated with a degree in health and human performance last December. Just weeks prior, he’d been named the Southern Conference defensive player of the year and would receive All-America honors shortly after that.
He has already duplicated the SoCon award this season, when his 8.5 sacks and 16 tackles for loss have helped the Mocs go 7-4 so far and reach the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, making them one of 24 teams chasing the national title starting this weekend.
Just 30 minutes down the road, his high school alma mater, Bradley Central, is 13-0 and prepping to play in the TSSAA state semifinals for the first time since the program’s 1976 state championship season. This is the Bears’ first season reaching double-digit wins since 2017, Person’s final year of high school. Bradley Central went from five wins his freshman season, to 10 his final one.
Point being, Person leaves the programs he joins better.