The football season is the busiest part of the Cheerleader's season. A student or teacher would be able to recognize them by wearing their friday outfits, selling beat tags and other items such as flags and miniture poms in the halls and class rooms.
As for the games, the cheerleaders would attend all of them, home or away. If the games were away the parents of the cheerleaders would get together and carpool to the game's location instead of the girls riding a bus.
Having a complete turn around from the previous season(2-8), the Dragons had a season record of 8-2. Their Head Coach, Mike Simmonds, was named Tampa Tribune's Coach of the Year and lead Jefferson with pride.
The Varsity football team started the 1999-2000 season off on a good note with a 21-0 shutout against the 1998 6A District Champions at Leto High School. Arties Brown burst out from the line of scrimmage on his 2nd carry of the game and envaded a trio of Falcons for a 59 yard run for a score.
Quarterback Cameron Rodgers later rolled to his left and threw a pass near the goal line to Ricky Johnson for a 38 yard touchdown reception. To make the final score of 21-0, Rodgers threw a 10-yard pass to Donald Mey.
For Jefferson's first loss of the season, the ending score was 10-0. Brown was limited to 57 yards on 11 carries while Rodgers completed 12 of 19 passes with one interception totalling 67 yards.
(Home)We lost 10-7.
"Jefferson gave Zephyrhills their worst defeat since 1984. Coach Tom Fisher has 11 years at Zephyrhills. It was his worst defeat in 109 games,"said Coach Simmonds.
To help in this 50-3 annihilation, sophomore Carl Jones ran for 145 yards and made two touchdowns. Fifteen-year-old running back Elijiah Dukes, who is the centerpiece of the Dragon's new offense, added 97 yards and a score to the board. For rushed yards, sophomore Arties Brown was a key asset with 91 yards.
The Team's new quarterback, sophomore Cameron Rodgers, threw for 110 yards including a touchdown pass to senior Pat Marsinek.
Running a total of 327 rushing yards, Rodgers only threw for one pass for the new Dragon offense. Dukes and Jones ran a 54 yard touchdown, making the score 22-7 halfway through the third period. With a few tricks up the Panther's offense, they were able to squeeze in another touchdown before the Dragons took home the winning score of 22-12.
Robinson entered the game 3-0 in the district and was back-to-back playoff team in 1997 and 1998, with last year's leading rusher Kwane Doster. With both teams tied entering the fourth quarter, the Dragon's tired the Knights out, including their star rusher who was held for 32 yards, and had themselves a shopping spree. Dukes scored the first touchdown in the 4th, making the score 12-6.
After a 70-yard sprint, Ricky Johnson added another touchdown to the score, demoralizing the Robinson strategy. Knowing they had Robinson beat, Jefferson pulled it in with two more touchdowns scored by Brown and Jeremy Burnett, leaving Robinson defeated 35-6.
(HOMECOMING)We won 21-6!!
Winning this game 41-0 with mostly passes, Rodgers finished the fourth quarter with 110 yards on 11 carries and 2 touchdowns. Dukes had 105 yards, 5 carries and a score under his belt while Brown had 93 yards anda score. Late in the fourth Jeremy Burnett picked a fumble and ran for 58 yards.Four minutes later, Rodgers throws to Johnson for an 80 yard scoring strike.
(Home)We won 35-13!!
Billy Borrero,senior, took the ball from Gryphon player, Antoine Henderson, and dashed for the end zone for a 27 yard touchdown. After that, the Dragon's momentum couldn't be stopped. Jefferson won the game 34-6.
This was the Dragon's first playoff game since 1996. Despite of 31 penalties resulting in 305 yards, Jefferson won the game 28-20.
During the fourth quarter, the Tigers were working their way back hoping for a comeback but fell short, with the Dragon's strong defense working hard to keep the lead. Marsinek was ejected from the game for unsportsmanlylike conduct and was in danger of not playing the the next game.
Jefferson scored the first touchdown leading the game 6-0. Shortly after, the Pirates picked off a fumble in the end zone. With a successful extra point, they took the lead 7-6 but failed to score any more points.
By halftime, the Dragon's took command to lead the game 20-7 with a two-yard sneak pass to Dukes by quarterback Cameron Rodgers. Dukes ran 10 yards into the end zone. After a scoreless third quarter, the Dragons made two more touchdowns and one two-point conversionto the end the game witha score of 36 to 7. Unlike the Lecanto game, Jefferson won the game, being flagged only nine times.
At this point in the playoffs, Jefferson and Hillsborough High Schools were the only schools in Hillsborough County still competing.
The Titusville War Eagles resembling a 1A college team, averaging 6'4'' in height and weighing 285 pounds was a definate challege for Jefferson, the smallest and youngest team in the playoffs. With defensive effort and complex formations, the Dragons held them back throughout the first quarter and most of the second.
However, right before the end of the half, the War Eagles scored their first touchdown. After halftime, Jefferson fumbled a punt on the six-yard line. One play later Titusville scored again, making it14-0. Dukes only had 10 carries, totaling 36 yards. Titusville ended the game leaving the Dragon's crushed witha shutout loss of 21-0.
Most of the information was provided for by the school's newspaper, The Independent Pen. Written by Manging Editor, Jessica Rieker and Sports Editor, Bill Cunningham.
