Senior Late Afternoon For the Seahawks

Joey Falls poked his head one step into the coaches’ office Wednesday afternoon at South Lakes HIgh.

“I can’t play this week, Coach,” said Falls, a two-way lineman, to Seahawks Coach Jason Hescock. “I failed my test.”

Joey Falls is an exemplary student … he didn’t fail a test in the classroom. He failed his concussion test. For a second straight week, he will miss thanks to a concussion suffered in practice.

And this will one will be painful. Joey Falls is Mr. South Lakes Football at this point. He is a starter on the offensive line, but more than that, he is the spiritual leader of the team. When things go south – as they have some during this 2-6 season – it is Falls who refuses to let the team quit.

“I don’t care what the score is,” he shouted at teammates on the bench as South Lakes fell behind in one early game this season. “Hit somebody.”

And now with its playoff hopes all but dashed and his grandmother coming to town for Senior Night – or rather Senior Late Afternoon since the Seahawks entertain Centreville at 4 p.m. on Saturday – Falls can’t play.

“The world’s not fair. Life’s not fair. Football’s definitely not fair,” said Hescock after Falls departed. “Joey is a kid who does everything the right way. He epitomizes our five Cs – character, commitment, competition, community and classroom. I hate this for him.”

A spot in the playoffs is highly unlikely for the Seahawks, who are 0-3 in the Concorde District after winning it last year, coming into their game against Centreville (3-5, 2-1), which beat Chantilly, 28-27, in overtime last week. But Saturday’s game will give fans their last opportunity in Reston to honor a group of seniors who had a star-crossed trip through the program.

They lost every game as freshmen – most by lopsided margins. They won three JV games as sophomores. As juniors, they were backups to the best team in school history – the 10-1 Concorde District champs led by region offensive player of the year Nick Harris. Only Xvavier Swain, a two-way starter on the line, and Amare Thaxton, a standout defensive lineman, were full-time starters last year. Cody Wood played some at running back.

This year, the Seahawks have paid for that inexperience with an interception that led to a 4-minute breakdown and a 27-6 loss to Robinson, a last-drive breakdown that led to a last-play touchdown in a 30-28 loss at Chantilly and an extra point kick tipped into the crossbars that cost South Lakes in a 48-47 overtime loss at Oakton.

They’ve played everyone tough – even the 35-7 loss to Madison last week was only 14-7 at the half. But the horseshoe, as Hescock calls it, has not resided on South Lakes Drive.

From one standpoint, this will be the class after the class that produced the greatest year of sports accomplishment in Seahawk history – with an unbeaten district championship in football, the first boys’ state basketball championship in school history and a state tournament team in baseball.

But Hescock said he’ll have other memories of this group. “They were born leaders,” he said. “We had a sub-group, sort of a clique of leaders, and they made sure everyone was here every day and everyone did what they were supposed to do. Some like Joey are more vocal; others, like Swain and Sammy Alfred, are quieter and lead by example.”

Hescock said Wood also was an example of the tenacity of this group. “When he came in, undersized is an understatement,” Hescock said of Wood, who leads the team with 13 touchdowns. “But he made up his mind he was going to get bigger and stronger and faster so he could compete, and now we call him the Muscle Hamster because of all the work he’s done.”

Hescock said he hurt for Nick Cooper, who tore his ACL in the first half of the first game of the season and had his surgery just this week. David Sam, Hescock said, “was a lost boy, shuffling between positions.” But he’s found purpose on the offensive line and has become a key performer. Matthew McArthur has been a leader from Day 1 “both on the field and in the classroom,” Hescock said. “Smart guy who can do a lot of things.”

The mission now is “to get those guys a couple more wins because they deserve it,” Hescock said. That’ll mean corralling a Centreville team that is not big but fast and athletic, he said.

“We like our matchup,” he said. “They do a lot of good things, and they have defensive backs who can jump out of the roof. But we think we can do some things too. These losses have hurt. We’ve been in every game. I feel like it’s our turn to do it for our seniors.”