Jayton downs Oakwood 54–8 to claim 6-man trophy
FLY HIGH: Jayton head coach Josh Stanaland lofts the UIL Football State Chapmionship trophy after the Jaybirds forty-five Oakwood in 1A six-man Division 2 game Dec. 18.
The entrance to the City of Jayton will never be the same.
For decades, the metal art sign at the edge of the town, population 494, proudly proclaimed State Football Champions 1984-85.
That’s going to change. Yesterday the 2024 Jayton Jaybirds defeated the Oakwood Panthers 54-8 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, where the Dallas Cowboys play, before an attendance crowd of 3,035. Thousands came to see the football team for a county of 734. (Jayton beat Oakwood off the field too, as the Panthers’ seats were sparsely filled compared to the Jaybirds’.)
From the coin toss to the mercy rule that ended the game at halftime, just about everything went Jayton’s way. But as the adage goes, you make your own luck.
Coach Josh Stanaland said it best, in the post-game press conference, as he introduced the five captains of the new state championship team. “Coach-led teams can’t go all the way. It takes player-led teams to be champions.”
With the coin flip, Jayton elected to kick, and from the first touch of the ball, the Jaybirds were relentless on defense with senior Griff Reel disrupting Oakwood’s sophomore quarterback Dayden Velasquez’s rhythm from the get-go.
Jayton junior Colt Gentry and senior Ayden Salazar knotted up the Panther running game, and junior free safety Sean Stanaland and sophomore cornerback Lorenzo Vargas all but shut down Oakwood’s passing game.
With Oakwood’s first possession, as they prepared to punt, they fumbled the ball in the end zone and Colt Gentry recovered. Jayton scored first, seized the momentum, and never let up.
In Oakwood’s second possession, the Panthers were driving toward a score when they fumbled again. Gentry again scooped up the fumble and this time ran it 73 yards for a touchdown. Jayton led 16-0 with 5:01 in the first quarter.
Oakwood also flexed some defensive muscle in the first quarter, shutting down junior running back Bode Ham, who’d scored nine TDs in the last playoff game. But the Jaybirds quickly adjusted, and moved the ball using Dayton Bleiker and Colt Gentry and kept scoring.
Two key receptions by Griff Reel kept another drive alive. Oakwood threatened once more in the first quarter, when Sean Stanaland in his free-safety role broke up a pass a few yards from the goal line that would have been a sure Panther touchdown. When the dust settled, the first quarter score was Jayton 22, Oakwood 0. All three first-quarter touchdowns were scored by Colt Gentry, two on defense and one on offense.
In the second quarter, Bode Ham was finally able to wriggle free of the Panthers’ grasp and scored twice on a 2-yard pass reception and a 37-yard ramble—his usual m.o.
In the second quarter, when Jayton’s lead went to 32-0, the Jaybird fans grew animated with anticipation of the capture of a gold ball that had eluded Jayton football fans for 39 years.
But that glimmer of hope actually began back in September, according to Head Coach Josh Stanaland. “When we played Valley, we honored the 1984 team, many of them came back for that occasion, and at that point, it began to dawn on a lot of us, that this year’s team has a shot at being a state championship team.”
One of the players of that 1984 championship team was Trey Richey, who went on to create his own legacy winning championships as a coach at Borden County. Richey was on hand to cheer on the Jaybirds.
Oakwood’s sole touchdown, a 60-yard pass reception from Dayden Velasquez to sophomore Brady Harrison, quieted the crowd and made the score 38-8.
Jayton’s next two possessions finally unlocked the keys to the kingdom as Sean Stanaland moved the offense down the field, and each time as the Panther defense stiffened, the quarterback took the ball in himself, first on a 13-yard run, and finally on a 15-yard scramble to the end zone.
Most Valuable Player honors for the game went to Colt Gentry on defense and Sean Stanaland on offense.
It’s been 39 years since Jayton won its last State championship, and Josh Stanaland has been the head football coach for 18 of those. Stanaland’s teams always play deep into the post-season playoffs, and they are routinely ranked in the state’s top 10. This year they jealously guarded the #1 spot all year long.
But this year is different. For the first time ever, Josh Stanaland is coaching alongside his brother, former Valley coach John Stanaland. “He has definitely made us a better team,” Josh Stanaland said about his brother in the post-victory press conference.
Family was a recurring theme in the Jayton press conference, all the way around. Senior Griff Reel said, “In a school like this, our parents have driven us everywhere. Their sacrifices made this possible.”
A legacy of excellence is nothing new for Jayton. They won the state championship in basketball earlier this year, and routinely have cross-country athletes advance to state levels as well.
When one of the two dozen reporters in the room asked quarterback Sean Stanaland if the big dance made them nervous, he responded, “When you finally get to the field, the nerves finally fall away.”
The Jaybirds definitely left it all on the field this year—and headed to the locker room with the gold ball.
