By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
The Northwood Falcons were the happiest losing team you could imagine Friday night.
The emotions ran far deeper than the sting of a season-ending 49-21 playoff loss to visiting Barbe in a Non-Select Division I first-round matchup at Jerry Burton Memorial Stadium.
Midway through the hopeless fourth quarter, senior fullback/linebacker John Sneed spelled it out to several teammates on the sideline.
“You play. Somebody’s gonna win, somebody’s gonna lose. The sun is still gonna come up tomorrow,” said Sneed, in a reassuring tone. “We’re brothers.”
Another of the Falcons’ cornerstones, defensive back and receiver Justin Thomas, joined teammates taking group pictures on the field after his coach, Austin Brown, had his players smiling and chuckling in a brief postgame speech.
Only because of the depth of relationships on the team could they handle the sad reality of a season, and careers, ending, said Thomas.
“We’re not happy we lost, but we are trying to smile the pain away,” he explained. “It hurts. It’s the last season for a lot of seniors, and somebody like me, growing up around Blanchard, watching these games on the sideline before I even got to middle school. These coaches knew me before I knew myself, especially with my brother coaching and my dad on the sideline every game.
“It’s hard to suck it in. I’m trying not to cry, trying to keep it all in, laugh the pain away with my brothers one last time,” he said.
Their uncommon valor is deeply rooted.
“It’s more than a bond, more than a family. It’s something that’s never been created before at Northwood High School,” said Thomas. “That’s what keeps us smiling tonight. We will cherish this the rest of our lives, and tell our children one day.”
Brown said ending 8-3, with a one-point loss to Loyola last weekend before the blowout by Barbe (6-5), didn’t detract from this team’s success.
“The end of the season isn’t representative of the work they put in. I’ve been head coach six years. Three or four of them were ballboys. and I’ve known them for a decade now, from middle school days,” he said. “They’ll always be a special team.”
They’ll also be the last Northwood team playing uphill in the postseason for a while. The Falcons are a Class 4A school playing with 5A programs in the LHSAA’s divisional playoff system. After having the lowest enrollment in Division I, they’re slated to move to Division II for at least the next two years.
That future was another reason to smile.
“We really thought this senior group was going to be the one that broke through and made a run in Division I, but it didn’t work out,” he said.
“Four-five years in a row now, we’ve had some good teams and had to play teams from the higher classification,” said Brown. “We’ll finally get to play in Division II next year so we are looking forward to that.
“There’s a lot of excited people here in Blanchard.”
Most of the excitement during the game was created by one of the best high school baseball players in America.
Barbe centerfielder/running back Jordin Griffin went deep. Over and over. Big fly 70-yarder to start. After a 1-yard TD, a 30-yard dancing blur for six from sideline to sideline for a 21-7 lead, with scores of 6, then 8 yards boosting the spread to 35-14 just 38 seconds after halftime
The showstopper made it 42-14 seven minutes later, a 66-yarder. Griffin took a handoff going behind the right guard, realized there was a flock of Falcons there, took off left like he was stealing a base, then outran the defense as if he was chasing a fly ball to the outfield wall.
He’ll do that for LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson – unless he gets a big enough contract offer in the 2027 Major League Baseball draft.
Friday, his tally was six TDs – the Bucs’ first six — part of 260 yards on 19 carries (a 13.7 average). A week earlier, the junior also had six sixes and 289 yards against Lafayette. Not bad for a 5-8, 170-pounder who didn’t have a career 100-yard game until three weeks ago.
“He’s a great athlete,” said Thomas. “We knew he was coming all week. We tried our best, we all did. We did what we could, but he’s just a great athlete who outperformed us today.”
“We didn’t play terrible defensively,” said Brown. “Number 10, he’s just special.”
And he also plays baseball? Surreal.
“I push myself to be a multi-sport athlete,” said Griffin. “I don’t want to be just a baseball player, I want to be mobile and agile. It’s a lot of fun. I take it real serious, but I put in a lot of time on baseball and I’m better at that.”
Hard to imagine.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com