By Jack Teague/The Omniscient
When asked what he thinks of when someone says “Jourden Blackmon,” senior Daniel Burwell said, “I think of every time he hits somebody in lacrosse or football and he just lifts them off their feet. He’s just a monster.”
Now a star player on the football team, senior Jourden Blackmon wasn’t always as confident about his abilities as everyone else is now.
“Well, I came to Northwood not thinking I’d be able to break a record, because the [tackles] record was 133, which is still a lot of tackles. And then, junior year, I just started making a lot,” Blackmon said.
Blackmon credits coach Brian Harrington for teaching him the skill set he needed to make all those tackles.
“Coach Harrington taught me how to read a guard and how to make tackles,” Blackmon said.
Reading a guard involves watching how the opposing player moves to judge what they’ll do next.
This season, Blackmon led the team with 186 tackles. In 10 games, that equals 18.6 tackles per game. Blackmon also set a Northwood career record for tackles with 360.
Another of Blackmon’s coaches, Bill Hall, who has coached Blackmon in some form since the fourth grade (first at a summer camp and then on the varsity team), had this to say about him:
“Every Friday night of the last three years is Jourden Blackmon time. He’s one of the few that when you look at this kid, there is no doubt what he is,” Hall said. “He is a linebacker, he is a football player, and he’s one of the best linebackers I’ve ever coached, and not only that, he is one of the best football players I’ve ever coached. His time is Friday night at 7:30.”
Three colleges, Catawba, Campbell and Wingate, have already expressed interest in signing the linebacker.
“I really like Catawba because the coach has shown a lot of interest in me,” Blackmon said.
Besides football, Blackmon has also excelled in wrestling and lacrosse. As a junior, Blackmon qualified for state competition in wrestling, and was named second team All-Conference in lacrosse.
Blackmon didn’t go into high school wanting to wrestle. In fact, he tried out for the basketball team before he started to wrestle.
“I tried out for the basketball team my freshman year and didn’t make it, and I ended up getting surgery on my shoulder at the end of football season freshman year. And I couldn’t play, so after that I just decided to wrestle,” Blackmon said.
Last year, Blackmon had a 24-8 record in the 195 lb. weight class. He beefed up to 220 for regionals.
“I wrestled at 195 the whole season until I went to regionals because 195 was too stacked up with too many good wrestlers, and I had never made it to states, so I bulked up to 220,” said Blackmon.
Blackmon reached state competition, but lost both of his matches.
Last year, Blackmon led the lacrosse team in hits, an unofficial stat, and had the second most groundballs on the team with 52.
“Any time someone tried to cut to the middle, Jourden was happily there to meet them,” lacrosse coach Kevin McDaniel said. “He makes a lot of guys shake in their shoes on the lacrosse program. Our team and other teams. He used to be out of control, we used to call him a loaded gun. Now he’s controlled TNT. We can’t wait to unleash him out there this season.”
–By Jack Teague