Each week DuvalSports.com will name our Youth, Middle School and High School Football Players of the Week. The players are announced every Tuesday at the DuvalSports show, 8pm Gator’s Dockside Baymeadows! Come out, enjoy food, music, and support our youth and prep performers. Shows are posted on DuvalSports.com each Thursday.
This week’s players of the week have a lot in common. They both wear #10 on their jerseys. Green is the primary colors of both their teams, they both started playing football at 5 years old, and yes Argyle Spartan Christian Ellis and Yulee Hornet Jamari Peacock both had spectacular games this past week.
Twelve year old Christian Ellis plays OLB and RB for the Argyle Spartans, a youth football park in west Jacksonville. The Spartans are members of the American Youth Football and Cheer Conference or AYF. On Saturday August 26th 2016 , Christian played his first game since five and six years old in an unlimited weight football game.
After playing the last five years in Pop Warner Football which has weight restrictions according to age, AYF has no weight restrictions pertaining to age. Ellis admitted he was a little nervous. ” Pop Warner was a little different because I didn’t get to play with some of the kids that are big like I do now with the team I’m with, and so I was a little nervous at first but after the first game I was good.” Good he was. Christian’s team faced the 12u Raw Cardinals. He had 2 interceptions and a kickoff return for a touchdown. Of course being the competitor he is Christian was upset about the interception he didn’t get. “I almost had three interceptions but I dropped one”. This young athlete has starred on every team he’s been on from Atlanta to Jacksonville. One of his coaches happily nicknamed him ” AD” for all day, as Christian is known for making plays on the field all day long. If this trend continues he’ll star in Middle School and High School as well. He got a chance to meet a current High School star on this night, one that he wants to follow in their footsteps.
Jamari Peacock embraces the fact that he is following in the footsteps of Heisman Trophy winner and current Tennessee Titan Derek Henry. That’s why when he rushed for 6 touchdowns in one game tying Derek Henry’s school record, he was content when his coach called a kneel down as Peacock prepared to break the record. ” We already had the game put away and it was a smart situation by coach, cause you know anything could’ve happened a fumbled snap or they pick ball up and score which would make the lead that much more narrow”. Coach Ramsey also wanted to save his star back who rushed 29 times in the game for 220 yards, 6 touchdowns one of them being a 63 yarder. Yulee road the back of Peacock to a 42-25 victory over Ridgeview Friday night.
He is the focus of an offense that will feature him in many ways this year. ” We don’t really change anything, we add a lot of things and if its working we’re going to keep at it.” said Peacock. Apparently Friday Night it was working. Jamari began playing football at the young age of five in Miami Florida Pop Warner. ” I actually started out playing offensive line” said Jamari at the laughter of his teammates Drayton Stephens, Steve McGarvo, and Cole Richardson who made the trip from Yulee. That should serve as inspiration for young athletes who play offensive line but may want to run the ball one day. Blocking one day and scoring a school record for touchdowns in just a few years later. It’s the reason Peacock is a student of the game, a smart football player who goes over film with the coaches intrinsically to study his next opponent. It’s that type of preparation and effort that has made Jamari Peacock one of the best athletes in the area, and our Duval Sports Player of the Week!
Both players were awarded a free meal courtesy of Gators Dockside Baymeadows for being named Duval Sports Players of the Week! Don’t forget to join us every Tuesday Night at 9 pm for the live taping of the show!
