Leemen win title

COURT WILLS / News Virginian
Published: October 30, 2007

STAUNTON- Before Robert E. Lee could finally lift up the veil to grab the inaugural Southern Valley crown, Adam Tibbs had one more thing left to do - douse his best-man father with cold ice water.

"I was wondering why Rajah asked to borrow my phone. I guess he didn't want to get it wet," said an excited Lee coach David Tibbs.

After two failed attempts to win the old nine-team Valley District against Harrisonburg, the Leemen defeated Rockbridge on Monday 40-16 for the automatic berth in Region III.

"We wanted to win it," Tibbs said. "I don't think anyone gave us a chance. But these guys came through."

For once and for the first time, the Leemen could finally call themselves the brides of the Southern Valley District.  As Tibbs addressed his team after the game, he said, "don't let this be the end".

However, for senior running back Jenkins it is the only the beginning. Only this year, has Jenkins been a part of the heavy rivalries within the Southern Valley District. Jenkins is a transfer student from Fishburne Military School.

Monday was no different as Jenkins exploded down the field for two 55-yard touchdowns - one in the first and in the fourth quarter.

"It feels real good to get this and be crowned district champs. It's my first one ever," Jenkins said. "I knew when I got here we were going to have a good team."

In the first quarter, it didn't take long for the power-runner to fool the Rockbridge defense. With the quick inside handoff from quarterback Dae Quan Scott, Jenkins was gone at the speed of light as he broke up the middle for his first 55-yard touchdown.

"After watching film with my dad, we found that their weak point was in the middle so I just tried to pop to the outside and find the open holes," Jenkins said.

With a 14-0 lead heading into the second quarter, Rockbridge started to close in on the Leemen when Terrell Fitz pushed into the end zone for the 1-yard score.

Twice Robert E. Lee had the opportunity to score, but both times the Leemen came up short. One being on a bad snap for a possible field goal and the other with Scott being just shy of the goal line.

"We've learned to forget about it. You gotta play the next play," Tibbs said. "We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot. But for as badly as we were playing, we were still winning."

In the fourth quarter, Robert E. Lee kept up that winning mentality when three different Leemen scored touchdowns for a combined 102 yards.

"We did what we had to do to win," said Tibbs.