TOMMY BOY: Hun School football player Tommy Douglas takes a break during a pregame warmup earlier this season. Last Friday, junior tight end Douglas made five receptions for 132 yards and two touchdowns to help the Raiders to a 64-0 win over Hewlett Sports Academy. Hun, now 3-1, plays at Springside Chestnut Hill (Pa.) on September 20. (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)
By Justin Feil
Tommy Douglas came to the Hun School football team this fall for the chance to showcase his talents against better competition.
The junior tight end from Chatham has made an immediate impact as one of the newcomers that has helped Hun to a 3-1 start. On Friday, the 6’4, 225-pounder caught five passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns to help the Raiders roll to a 64-0 win over Hewlett Sports Academy.
“It was just a great team win,” said Douglas. “We had a great week of practice leading up to it, all great energy coming off the win against Archbishop Spalding (35-28 on September 5). Right out the gate our defense showed up. I don’t think we gave them a first down all game, which is crazy. And offense, everything was clicking. O-line was giving Lukas [Prock] time.”
Another newcomer to Hun, quarterback Prock, had a monster game against Hewlett throwing the ball to a stable of receivers. The sophomore quarterback from Massachusetts completed 22-of-27 passes for 651 yards and eight touchdowns. Alex Russey, Chase Enlow, Brady Scheier, Warren Hernandez, Sam Shelby, and Nick Diamond all had a touchdown catch apiece, and JD Teza also had 104 yards receiving. Douglas had the biggest game this time, highlighted by a 80-yard scoring reception.
“Coach (Todd Smith) did a great job dialing up plays for me specifically, like how I can get the ball in that situation, what coverage the defense is running, and what routes beat that coverage,” said Douglas. “I think on that 80-yard touchdown, it was a great call. All the safeties carried the post routes deep and it left me coming right over the middle of the field. Teammates did a great job blocking downfield there, not coming off. It was a great effort by them and it helped me outrun everyone.”
The Raiders have won three straight games since falling in a unique opener. Hun dropped a 34-21 decision to NFL Academy in a game played in Donnybrook, Ireland, on August 22. It was the team’s first game together with a number of new faces in the lineup this year.
“After that game, everyone started to realize that it’s going to take some time, we have a bunch of new guys and nothing’s going to click right away,” said Douglas. “So we just gotta keep building off everything we’re doing right now until the stronger latter half of our schedule when we play like Saint Frances, First Academy, and IMG. I think we’re doing a great job right now. It’s only gonna keep getting better.”
The game in Ireland was quite a launching point for Douglas’ time at Hun. His first game was one he won’t forget.
“It was a great experience,” said Douglas. “All the guys loved it. Obviously, we didn’t have the outcome we wanted, losing the game, but it’s a once in a lifetime thing to go overseas and play a football game with the guys we’ve been working with all summer. I didn’t take anything for granted over there. It was actually my first time overseas, so I was kind of soaking in the moment.”
The Raiders had been preparing all summer for the trip. Hun had strong turnouts for their summer workouts together. It set the tone for the season by establishing the standards for the team.
“It’s honestly been great,” said Douglas. “I’ve never done anything as hard as what we did in the summer. It was a mental battle in the summer, and I’m glad I overcame it. The whole team is doing great things right now. No one really skipped anything. It was all ‘voluntary,’ but we all knew it was mandatory. That’s just part of the team we have here. Everyone has one goal and that’s to go Division I, like to a big school, and skipping workouts isn’t going to get you there. And I think the coaches do a great job preaching that as well.”
The summer workouts also gave Douglas a chance to acclimate to his new surroundings and bond with his new team. That’s been crucial to getting the season off to a good start.
“The guys here are just great,” said Douglas. “First day here, I didn’t feel left out or out of place or anything. Everything just clicked right away. And Lukas, he’s a great guy. I mean, we used to stay after practice and shag some balls. I mean, that’s how I really built chemistry with him off the field and on the field, just staying after practice, getting some extra work in. Hanging out off the practice field is huge too.”
The Raiders continue to develop their chemistry and fine tune both sides of the ball each week. There have been a lot of additions to bring up to speed in the program.
“I think the captain, the seniors, have done a great job just taking everyone under their wing in the weight room, especially some kids coming from smaller schools than me that aren’t used to doing the lifts we do,” said Douglas. “They’ve never done it before. And the captains and the seniors have done a great job just teaching everyone like the ways of Hun and what it means to be a team here.”
The opening game loss was an early test of how the team would react. Hun turned around and came back with a 48-0 shutout win over Pennington on August 29 in a promising sign. They have continued to excel from there.
“The best thing we did after the game is we just swallowed the loss, we took the loss and we moved on to the next game,” said Douglas. “We watched film in Ireland as a team. It’s just good for everyone to see what your mistakes are and how you can fix that, and coach also compliments your great plays on film and that kind of boosts the morale of the team. So I think coming into Pennington, we had a feeling things were going to get on track eventually. And we won, 48-0. And it’s only going uphill from there.”
The first month of the season has given Douglas everything that he was looking for when he transferred into the football hotbed. He’s taken to the culture and worked on getting stronger, faster and found a way to contribute against tough competition.
“I wanted to play some great football,” said Douglas. “I wanted to play against the top 25 teams in the country. I wanted to have great competition and put some film out there for college coaches to see me playing against great teams and what I can do against those players because the players that we’re playing against, those players are going to go Power 4 schools and some of those players are going to go to the league so it’s just great to have clips against some of them because those are quality clips instead of like playing against a small town in North Jersey. That doesn’t really mean much. So the competition was a really big thing coming for me.”
Douglas has been able to prove himself week in and week out as part of the Hun juggernaut. Through four games, he has made 13 catches for 274 yards and four touchdowns. He’s part of an offense that can score a number of ways, and the depth is a huge strength for the squad.
“I’m very pleased with how I’ve done, and it’s credit to everyone,” said Douglas. “The players who are not getting the ball are doing the best they can to still have an impact on the play. We have like 10 guys who are going to go D-I in the receiving core, even if they haven’t got offers yet, we have insane talent so not everyone’s going to get a reception or a target in a game so if you’re in you have to make the most of those opportunities. I think we’ve done a great job with that.”
Hun will close the month with games at Springside Chestnut Hill (Pa.) on September 20 before hosting Mt. Zion Prep (Md.) on September 27.
“We just got to keep our foot on the gas against these teams,” said Douglas. “Against good teams especially, we can’t have any mistakes, especially any mental mistakes. So we’re just going to keep watching our film, we’re going to keep practicing hard on the field. The game is won in the week of practice and the week of preparation. So I think for the teams that we’re playing in the latter half, the preparation is going to be huge for us.”