MONTICELLO, Fla. (WTXL) - The Jefferson County football program is one of the most successful in the state. Three times, they've celebrated State Championships on the same football field they play on now. Eight different coaches in thirteen seasons have the program begging for consistency, but orange and blue runs deep in Monticello, and they're ready to celebrate again.
"We have track championships and basketball," said Blair Armstrong, who's in his first season of his second stint as head football coach. "I know the year we won a State Championship in football, I think we won a state track that year, and lost to Pahokee triple overtime in basketball."
Track, basketball, but nothing is more dominant for the Tigers then football. Six State Championships, the first in 1966, a team steered by future NFL Hall of Famer Jack Youngblood.
"He was a linebacker, middle linebacker, #52," remembered Armstrong. "I was a little fullback, and I was supposed to block him. Several times he'd help me up, dust me off, and send me back to the huddle, and say you'll be alright! Keep working, keep working son!"
Armstrong never won a State Championship as a student at Jefferson County, but captured the 1982 title, the program's fourth as a head coach. They won again in 1991, and their latest came in 2011.
Those six State Championships, tied for fourth all time in the state of Florida. It's a tradition of excellence, and in his second stint in orange and blue, he's finding that tradition is running deep with his current players.
"I have a grand kid, and a bunch of nephews, and a bunch of uncles that played for us, and a few dads, some that waited late to have kids," laughed Armstrong. "That's been kind of interesting. I'll see somebody and I'm like, I know you! Having a chance to come back here, and finish my career and build this program back to where it was. The whole idea of the community is to try and pull together and get us back to where we were."
Where they were is where they want to be. The tradition of Jefferson County, from the old arborvita bushes that surrounded the field, to winning a State title, a feeling Armstrong wants to pass on to his team.
"When you run on that field, I will never forget, that very field right there, running out of the end zone, after they sang the Star Spangled Banner, running off to the sideline and all the balloons were let loose," he reflected. "It's kind of like those movies where the two lovers are running across the valley in slow motion towards each other, that's what it felt like. I felt like my heart was going to bust out of my chest running across that field. You can't put a price on that."
Armstrong said the support from the community has been great. Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Al Cooksey was a big part in bringing Armstrong back. Cooksey graduated from Jefferson County in 1965, just missing that first State Championship. Many Tigers still live in town, or keep up with the program.
