First Coast Varsity Weekly: Jackson honors Kevin Sullivan in football field ceremony

The calendar said Kevin Sullivan was going to be on vacation last weekend.

A message from Jackson football coach Christopher Foy changed those plans.

"He told me, 'Hey, coach, you've got to come to the spring game,'" Sullivan recalled. "I said, 'I don't know, I was going to be in the North Carolina mountains then.' And he said you've really got to be at this game."

Something, Sullivan realized, was going on.

A new name and a new tradition, to honor a Jackson legend.

Jackson renamed its high school stadium on the west side of Main Street as Kevin Sullivan Field in honor of the longtime coach and administrator, unveiling the new facility name prior to Friday's spring game against Atlantic Coast.

The game united the programs most associated with Sullivan during his coaching career on the First Coast, which included nearly 200 victories.

Sullivan, who coached the Tigers from 1998 to 2001 and again from 2003 to 2009, ranks among the most successful in a line of noted Jackson coaches, going back to Mike Houser in the 1930s and Tuffy Thompson in the 1950s.

Before Sullivan arrived, Jackson had been mired near the bottom of Jacksonville's football scene, enduring 14 years without a winning record. During his Tigers tenure, he turned the team around, compiling a 93-33 record with nine playoff appearances.

He returned to Jackson as athletic director, retiring from that role in 2021.

He also launched the new Atlantic Coast program upon the school's opening in 2010, leading the Stingrays for five seasons with records at or above .500 in each.

Sullivan also coached at Deerfield Beach, Port Orange Atlantic and White during his career on the sidelines.

He estimated that the ceremony included close to 100 former players from his previous coaching stops, some of whom he hadn't seen for close to two decades.

"It just makes you proud at what you've accomplished, but with a whole lot of help from a whole lot of people," Sullivan said. "It's really humbling."

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Nicholas to lead Generals football

The last piece in the Gateway Conference football coaching puzzle lined up in place this week.

Riverside announced longtime assistant Antwan Nicholas as the Generals' new head coach. He coached the Generals, who did not compete in a traditional spring game, during a scrimmage last week.

Nicholas takes over for O.J. Small, who led the team for nearly 11 full seasons and steered the Generals out of the football doldrums, qualifying for seven consecutive playoffs from 2015 through the present.

Small compiled a record of 79-38 with the Generals as the school's most successful coach since the departure of Corky Rogers to Bolles after the 1988 season.

Nicholas is new to the head coach position, but he's far from a stranger to the program.

A graduate of the school during its years as Lee High, he played football at Edward Waters College (now Edward Waters University), twice earning National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic All-American honors as a defensive back. Nicholas participated in workouts hosted by the Jaguars ahead of the 2007 NFL Draft but ultimately was not signed.

He worked under Small for much of the past decade, including the semifinal run of the Generals in the 2017 FHSAA playoffs, and has also served as defensive coordinator at both Edward Waters and Benedict.

He also has deep family ties to the Generals: His brother, Stephen Nicholas, played seven years at linebacker with the Atlanta Falcons coming out of USF.

Riverside, designated in the Metro category under the FHSAA's new Metro-Suburban split for high school football in 2022, will compete in District 3-2M next season alongside Westside and White.

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Weight room work pays off for Baldwin

Sometimes, those hours in the weight room pay off in ways that no one expected.

So when Baldwin football got an sudden chance to put its strength to use, this team was up to the test.

A parked sport-utility vehicle slid down a steep incline and into a ditch on school grounds following Thursday night's Region 1-3A softball championship game between Keystone Heights and Baldwin. That's when a group of Baldwin students, including members of the football team fresh from the spring game, sprang into action.

Clambering into the ditch and teaming up to lift and push the SUV from the front bunker, the group successfully extricated the vehicle from trouble without the need for a tow truck.

The Indians weren't exactly working at 100 percent energy, either. Baldwin had only just completed its spring football game about an hour earlier against Englewood.

Baldwin football has finished at or above .500 in six consecutive seasons, including a 7-4 record and a Class 4A playoff trip last fall.

Bears' Jackowiak named top coach

Award season isn't finished for Bartram Trail girls lacrosse.

Bartram Trail head coach Meghan Jackowiak won the Florida Dairy Farmers coach of the year award for girls lacrosse, after leading the Bears to the Class 2A state championship earlier this month.

Jackowiak coached the Bears to a 22-3 record, becoming Northeast Florida's first-ever two-time state lacrosse champion. Bartram Trail edged Vero Beach 8-7 in the championship game, following their 2016 title game success against the same team by the same score.

In addition, Ponte Vedra junior Maddox Johnson was named boys lacrosse player of the year in Class 2A, after scoring 63 goals and 14 assists in the Sharks' run to second place.

Long-stick middie Sean Jordan of St. Andrew's won Mr. Lacrosse honors for the second consecutive year, and Naples midfielder Lane Calkins won the Miss Lacrosse award.

Brumfield top seed for NCAA track

R'Lazon Brumfield is now the leader of the pack.

The former Bishop Kenny athlete, now a senior at Tennessee State, holds the top overall seed in the men's triple jump for this week's the NCAA Track and Field East Preliminary Championships in Bloomington, Ind.

Brumfield, the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 2A champion in the event in 2017 and the East Preliminary winner in 2021, placed second at the NCAA Indoor Championships over the winter with a distance of 54 feet, 4 inches.

Competition continues through Saturday at the meet, which qualifies athletes for the national championships from June 8-11 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Florida State's Alex Collier, from Orange Park, is in the running in the men's 400 with the 20th overall seed time, 46.03.

Fort White graduate Dedrick Vanover is seeded 11th in the men's 100 for Florida, Ponte Vedra's Kyle Reinheimer qualified in the men's 800 for North Carolina and Palatka's Eron Carter, now at USF, will compete in the men's discus and hammer throw.

In women's competition, among the top contenders is Fletcher graduate Kayley DeLay, racing for Yale and seeded third in the 3,000 steeplechase. She raced the event last year at the U.S. Olympic Trials ahead of the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The women's sprints include a pair of locals: Palatka's Ka'Tia Seymour, in her senior year at Florida State, will be running the 100 and 200, while UCF's Ciara Holback, from Atlantic Coast, races the 100.

In field events, Raines' Nazah Reddick competes in the women's high jump for North Carolina A&T and Columbia's Asherah Collins is also in the women's triple jump for UCF.

In the NCAA West Preliminary, held in Fayetteville, Ark., Stanford's Charles Hicks (Bolles) is a leading contender in both the men's 5,000 and 10,000.

Villarreal steps down from Sharks

A Ponte Vedra soccer original is stepping away from the Sharks sidelines.

Two-time state champion boys soccer head coach Daniel Villarreal stepped down at the school year's close, the athletic department announced Tuesday, after 14 years leading the Sharks.

Ponte Vedra won FHSAA state championships in 2013 and 2016, including a perfect 2015-16 season in which Ponte Vedra became Northeast Florida's first-ever unbeaten and untied public school team. He received the Florida Dairy Farmers boys soccer coach of the year award after that season.

The Sharks went undefeated during the regular season, advancing to the Class 6A boys final before losing 4-2 to Doral Academy and ending with a 16-1-3 record.

Since Ponte Vedra opened its doors in 2008, Villarreal (for boys) and Dave Silverberg (for girls) have been the only coaches in the school's soccer history.

Answers to last week's questions

1. Since 2000, Fletcher has the most football wins among Duval County public schools, with 170. The Senators' consistency (no losing seasons for 15 years) placed them just ahead of three-time FHSAA champion Raines, at 167. Following the leading pair are First Coast (140), Lee/Riverside (132), Sandalwood (132), White (128), Jackson (118) and Mandarin (117).

2. Union County football set a Florida record by winning 52 consecutive football games from 1994 to 1997.

3. St. Augustine leads all St. Johns County teams with 224 football wins since 2000. They're followed by Bartram Trail (170) and Nease (122).

Around the area

Columbia running back Jaelin Brown committed to Florida A&M football. ... Sandalwood's Ben Green signed with Palm Beach Atlantic baseball and Jon Padgett signed with Palm Beach State College baseball, and infielder Alvin Pabon committed Tuesday to Santa Fe State College baseball. ... St. Johns Country Day midfielder Dru Detlefsen committed to Chowan men's soccer. ... Brunswick running back Patrick Leggett signed with University of the Cumberlands football. ... Raines 110-meter hurdles state champion Harrison Robinson was honored with a special recognition from the U.S. Army Special Forces Association. ... Former St. Johns Country Day midfielder Carson Pickett became the 55th player in history to play 100 career games in the National Women's Soccer League. ... Atlantic Coast named Russell Adell as its next boys basketball coach. ... Clay hired Doug Deters, formerly at Green Cove Junior High, as girls basketball coach. ... The North team lost 30-18 to the East and 40-0 to the South at the Florida Athletic Coaches Association Flag Football All-Star Classic in Belleview, with Tallahassee FAMU's Ameari Logan named North MVP. ... Yulee and Tocoi Creek moved their spring football game up to 7 p.m. Thursday because of forecast inclement weather on Friday.

Clayton Freeman covers high school sports and more for the Florida Times-Union. Follow him on Twitter at @CFreemanJAX.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: First Coast Varsity Weekly: Jackson honors football coach Kevin Sullivan