GRANBY – Four years ago, Garrick Milledge was trying to figure out how to jump-start his Capital Prep/Achievement First football team.
The pandemic and subsequent shutdown of sports – and the 2020 football season – hurt his team, numberswise. His first year of coaching was 2019 and then he spent the next few years trying to catch up. The Trailblazers went 4-4 in 2021, playing an independent schedule. He didn’t particularly like playing freshmen, but he had one, Hashim Jones, that was ready to play so Milledge made him the quarterback.
Last year, Capital Prep went 5-5, playing in the Pequot Conference for the second straight year. This season, after a 14-8 victory over Granby/Canton in a Pequot game Friday night, the Trailblazers – led by the multipurpose Jones – are 8-0 and second in the Class S rankings behind Ansonia.
Jones had 19 carries for 182 yards and one touchdown Friday. Milledge was able to move him to running back this year and senior quarterback Malique Marshall had the other touchdown.
They’ve come a long way since 2020.
“(After) 2019 going into 2020, I had 9-10 freshmen showing up continuously and I had a core group of kids starting to come back; that was my first year being a head coach and COVID disrupted all that,” Milledge said. “I wasn’t allowed to do any football activities with them for 15 months or so because of the virus and the restrictions. I lost pretty much a whole class, some of my kids in the core group transferred out.
“What you see on the sideline was pretty much what was left in the program when we came back. I had to slowly try to bring kids back. We were low in numbers. I had to get good at developing kids and teaching them the game and a lot of them had to play early. (Hashim) ended up stepping in at quarterback and I had to put together an offense just so we could survive that year.”
Capital Prep has 12 seniors this year. Nine of them have been there since they were freshmen, including Jones, who has scholarship offers from Bowling Green, Central Michigan, University of Akron, Central Connecticut and Sacred Heart.
“The biggest thing with Hashim is when prep schools came after him, he said, ‘Coach, I’m going to finish this,’” Milledge said “He had a lot of options. It’s good to let kids know, ‘You can make it out of these schools. Just keep working hard.”
Jones, who has rushed for 1,550 yards and 13 touchdowns this season, isn’t sure where he’s going yet after high school. He’s enjoying this season first and playing with the other seniors.
“This season has been wonderful,” he said. “It’s a senior heavy group so we’ve known each other for so long, we just play off each other.”
Over the last four years, Jones has played pretty much every position except offensive line.
“He has lined up at corner, lined up at safety, linebacker, defensive end – a variation of D tackle,” Milledge said. “He’s played every position on defense. Offensively every position except OL.”
Jones opened the game with a 21-yard run. He scored on a 10-yard run to tie the score at 8-8 in the second quarterback and had a 66-yard burst in the second quarter, but an interception ended the Capital Prep drive. His 22-yard run set up Capital Prep’s second touchdown with 6:44 left in the fourth quarter.
Granby’s defense held Capital Prep in check for much of the game until the end.
“They knew what was going on, so we had to get real creative,” Milledge said. “(Granby’s Hayes Horst) did a phenomenal job making a lot of plays and tackles so we had to get away from him.”
Capital Prep’s defense wasn’t that bad, either, against a 5-2 Granby team whose only other loss was a close one to Rockville. Senior Taffari Dawes led the way with 15 tackles, seven solo, and 2 ½ sacks and Dwayne Small had 13 tackles and five sacks for the Trailblazers, who have two more regular season games left.
“They deserve a winning season after all the stuff they’ve been through,” Milledge said.
Capital Prep/Achievement First 14, Granby/Canton 8
Capital Prep 0 8 0 6 – 14
Granby/Canton 0 8 0 0 – 8
Second quarter
G-Hayes Horst 1 run (Vincent Forte run)
C-Hashim Jones 10 run (Dwayne Small run)
Fourth quarter
C-Malique Marshall 9 run (run failed)
Records: Capital Prep/Achievement First, 8-0; Granby/Canton 5-2