The dream is still alive: Jacobs is back under center

On summer nights, you could find him on the Goldsboro High School football field — scrambling to elude tacklers, launching perfect spirals to his friend and teammate Deonte Moore.

Different scenarios would play out in his head.

He learned to make adjustments based on the situation at hand.

His football IQ increased despite the fact that his opponents were imaginary — that he and Moore had to jump the fence to run plays in front of a crowd that didn’t exist.

On a scorching day in June, while dozens of local youths were treated to a charity sports camp by a GHS football legend, Jacobs whipped passes in front of standout NFL defensive lineman Jarran Reed. At one point, a friend of the Seattle Seahawk shook his head in disbelief.

“That kid’s gonna be dangerous,” he said.

Jamin Jacobs works out during the Jarran Reed Football Camp at GHS in June.

In two months, Jacobs thought, he would show people the hype was justified.

“We knew coming into the season that Jamin was gonna be the guy,” GHS head coach Timothy Ray said.

But on a dime, things changed.

The junior quarterback took a hit and broke his collarbone at the beginning of the Cougars’ first scrimmage in August.

Doctors told him he was done for the season before it even began.

It was a gut-punch.

“I cried. I cried a lot,” Jacobs said. “It just hurt.”

And behind the scenes, players and fans wondered if their season was lost.

But Tay Hooker stepped in and lead the Cougars to wins over rivals Eastern and Southern Wayne.

GHS went blow for blow against Charles B. Aycock, before losing on a controversial fumble at the goal line that would have tied the game late in the fourth quarter.

With every week that passed, Jacobs stayed patient — hoping to prove the doctors wrong.

Fast-forward to Friday night.

Jacobs, officially cleared for action the week before, finally had his opportunity.

He was electric.

The junior threw two touchdowns — one, a 75-yard bomb to Moore, the same young man who played out similar scenes with Jacobs on the field nearly every night this summer.

“This feels good right here,” Jacobs said after the game. “I used to jump the fence with (Moore) and I threw a touchdown to him today.”

Jacobs celebrates after throwing a touchdown pass.

But it was his second score, the one that sealed a Senior Night victory for the home team, that will likely be remembered long after the season comes to end.

The game was tied 20-20 and the Cougars faced a fourth down and long.

Ray called a play he said the team keeps “in our back pocket.”

Jacobs rolled to his left and lobbed the ball toward the GHS sideline.

Senior J.B. Rhodes grabbed it and took it to the house.

“I just knew we had to get this win,” said Rhodes, who finished his final home game with two touchdowns and more than 100 rushing yards. “Last game at home, so I just had to go out with a bang.”

Senior J.B. Rhodes had a massive game for the Cougars on Senior Night.

Ray called the winning play “the perfect story.”

But he was quick to note contributions from his young receivers, including Moore and Da’mon Brown, who caught a jump-ball touchdown pass from Hooker earlier in the game, in the absence of star wideout Jykeis Mclean who was sidelined with a leg injury.

“We knew other people were gonna have to step up and they did just that,” he said.

And he noted that the dreams his players had coming into the season are not dead yet — particularly now that his star quarterback is back under center.

“Everybody knows he the leader of the team. Getting hurt and sitting out our first eight games, Jamin learned a lot about himself,” Ray said. “But everybody knows that Jamin came into the season to be the guy and tonight, he was just that. He was that guy.”