To conclude the 2024 season, the varsity football team finished 1-9 for the second straight year in a row.

The team’s lone win came against Phelps High School on September 20. While the Tigers showed glimpses of growth with closer score margins, this past fall marked the fourth year the team has fallen short of winning more than two games in a season.

“Despite our record I believe the program made significant strides forward, particularly with the development of our young core,” said head coach Jason Strickland. “This season was about more than just wins and losses; it was about building a foundation and cultivating talent that will pay off in the long run.”

The Tigers last won a DCIAA Stars league game in 2022 on the day of homecoming against Eastern High School. That same year was the last time they made the playoffs.

In spring of 2024 the program was introduced to Kareem Jackson, who soon resigned, and quickly connected with current coach Strickland, who took over the job just three months ahead of last season.

Despite the setback, “our younger players showed growth and resilience, learning how to compete at a high physical level and developed chemistry on and off the field,” said Strickland. “I’m optimistic about where we’re headed. The record doesn’t reflect the hard work and progress made. This past season laid the groundwork for future success.”

Since the leagues formation in 2013, the Tigers have competed out of the DCIAA Stars division, DC public schools’s top conference of football competition. Despite the feeling of optimism, the continuation of the losing streak begs two questions:

Why has DC’s largest high school struggled to field a competitive football team? 

In assessing other schools with renowned programs in the area, JR’s problem falls on the fact that they lack the tools to recruit. For the program to be more competitive, having feed-in pattern middle schools and youth football programs would need to be solidified.

Four DCPS high schools have middle school feeders with football teams, which has benefited programs in the Stars division.

Does not have feeders: Jackson-Reed, Bell, Cardozo, Coolidge, H.D. Woodson, McKinley Tech, Phelps, Roosevelt and Ron Brown. 

After Alice Deal Middle School took away their program after 2019, neither of Jackson-Reed’s feeder middle schools offered football. Oyster-Adams traditionally offered track and field, soccer and volleyball. Up until 2024, students who attended Hardy Middle School, which has tackle football, could choose to attend JR or the newly-opened MacArthur, but now can only feed into the latter. 

“The last time I played football at Deal, we ended up having multiple people have their play translate well into high school. Everyone that wanted to play at the next level, went to college for football,” said senior left tackle Noah Person, a Wheeling University signee, who was a four-year varsity member and 2021 Deal alum. “Now we end up getting people basically starting from scratch playing football if they didn’t play on a recreational team at a younger age.” 

Deal’s tackle football program was first introduced in 2009 and at one point, peaked with over 60 kids playing. However, after the pandemic, Deal didn’t reestablish tackle due to lack of interest. Parental decisions, struggles of getting coaches who were not school staff into the building by 3:30 pm, and eligibility for papers and academics could all be attributed to the closure of the program. Deal saw its roster decrease to 19 kids before COVID and within a year and a half layoff, it dismantled the program.

While tackle went away, Deal principal Diedre Neal said flag football became popular amongst students and parents because it provided a lower impact alternative that was made available to all children during recess.

“I take part in responsibility for JR football not being great. It’s unfair, some schools have practice fields and others don’t,” said Neal. “If our kids want to play, we will steer them towards playing for Hardy. But they don’t have a football field. However, we’re willing to do what we can to help.”

JR last had a winning football season in 2018 at 8-4 and last appeared in the DCIAA championship in 2016 when Deal had a team.

Deal students who want to play tackle football are redirected to play for a different middle school. To bring back football in the Jackson-Reed boundary, the Deal and Hardy athletic departments have explored merging their programs to create a joint team. However, plans remain unfinalized and Hardy now feeds into MacArthur.

Across the city, DCPS football is a stark contrast. In Southeast, Johnson Middle School feeds into Ballou and is recognized as a top middle school football program in the country, having only lost one game in eight years. Ballou finished as runner-ups in the DCIAA Stars league in 2023.

Brookland and Jefferson Middle Schools, feeders into Dunbar and Eastern, have also produced strong middle school programs. This is primarily why Dunbar won two championships in the last three years and Eastern most recently had their best season with seven wins since 2015. 

Schools such as Ward 4’s Coolidge and Roosevelt, along with Northeast’s H.D. Woodson experienced the deficit of not having feeder school football, but tackled that disadvantage with local Ward youth football. Across DC, programs like the Ward 7 Blue Bulls, Ridge Road Titans, Ward 5’s Warriors, and Beacon House are institutions that produce a plethora of youth athletics that include little league football.

This creates a pipeline for schools to pull and form relationships with near or in-boundary kids that play the sport. Those schools have reaped the benefits: since 2020, Roosevelt has two Stars titles, Woodson has five titles since 2013, and Coolidge, who moved up to Stars in 2024, finished as city runners-up. Factoring in athletes’ personal prerogatives and kids choosing local private schools, the recruiting pool dries up for JR, who does not have any football sources in Ward 3. 

“They’re trying to play with opposing varsity level players with years of experience,” said JR Athletic Director Patrice Arrington. “It’s different when you are out there on the field with less experience. We don’t have anything to pull from so it gives us a disadvantage.” 

This leaves a simple formula: the teams that win in DCIAA football are the ones with youth or middle school football in Wards 4-8. Jackson-Reed is excluded from this success, with a lack of tackle football in the upper-Northwest quadrant of the city. 

Coach Strickland said the JR program has explored middle school visits, parent and community visits and collaborating with youth leagues, sports camps and recreation centers to combat the recruiting disadvantage, however those tactics can be slower than how other schools pull in athletes. 

Is it time for JR to move down to the DCIAA Stripes league—a lower tier competition conference—to further support a rebuilding program? 

AD Arrington said the athletic department would not explore options to move the program down to Stripes. Instead, any decision to move JR down would be in the hands of the DCIAA front office. As of April 22, there are no plans to move JR down to Stripes ahead of the 2025 fall campaign.

Per the DCIAA rulebook, if a stripes team wins two DCIAA “Gravy Bowl” Championships in three years they will be promoted to Stars. If a current Stars team finishes last in its division for three consecutive years that team will be demoted. Then, if a Stripes team wins two Gravy Bowl titles, and the Stars division is at capacity of seven teams like it was in 2024, the team with the lowest conference win percentage across three years gets sent down. 

The league expanded to seven teams when Coolidge won two straight Stripes titles in 2022 and 2023. With the division now full, the team on the bubble of demotion is JR. Their successor from Stripes would be Bell Multicultural High School, having won a prior title in 2021 but also now in 2024. Meaning, another last place year in DCIAA Stars this upcoming 2025 season or if Bell wins another Stripes title this upcoming fall would automatically position the Tigers for demotion. Last year, Bell blew out Stripes teams by 30 or more points five times and finished as runner-ups in the DCSAA Class A title against St. Albans.

With the exception of Anacostia, if the Tigers were to move down to the Stripes league, they would compete amongst other schools with no middle school football feeders.

The JR program had 32 seniors graduate over the last two seasons. Having not carried a JV team in 2024, the team has 27 underclassmen, however that number will vary depending on returners, newcomers and possible end of school year transfers out of the program. 

Football in the DMV is as competitive as ever, with the talent coming out of the area only getting stronger. The same goes for DCPS and football in the Stars League. Regardless of issues facing Jackson-Reed football, the 2025 fall is pivotal for JR’s future.