John Jay may practice in the dark, but the Mustangs’ future is bright

SAN ANTONIO – Early morning practices at John Jay High School are hard to find, literally, because when getting out of your car and walking around the parking lot, you’ll find the practice field, where there are no light poles to illuminate the field.

There’s a faint scoreboard in the back left corner of the field, where the team huddles up before breaking out into line for their warm-up stretching.

As the sun began to rise, so did the spirits of the Mustang players, who are pumped to open the season against rival Holmes High School in a game commonly known as the Backyard Brawl.

“Oh yes, sir, it fires me up real well, my dad, he played at Holmes, my uncle played there (and) my cousin he plays there now, so I want to beat them good, I want to get to them, yes sir, I’m excited,” said senior quarterback Tajari Wellington.

Are there any bragging rights associated with this game for the Wellington household?

“Oh, for sure, they talk a lot, they like to talk about it a lot, so I’m ready to go get it,” Wellington said.

“Oh yeah, I’m very excited, I know there’s a big culture between and rivalry between Jay and Holmes, so it’s really exciting to represent Jay at this game and excited to show out,” said senior linebacker Kyle Jackson.

“They have a bunch of good players, good-looking kids, and players coming back, and we’re looking forward to a good game because at the end of the day, we are rivals that dates back a long way, so we’re looking forward to a good challenge,” said head coach Gary Gutierrez.

The Mustangs are only returning three starters on offense and two on defense, so they will heavily rely on their senior leadership this season.

“We’ve been real big on approaching with more energy in practice instead of like, I wouldn’t say going through the motions, but being more chill,” Wellington said. “Ratcheting up the energy more so when we get in the big games like playoffs or deep into district, we’re going to be ready for it, it’s not going to be something new.”

“I guess it made it work differently in that, we really have to focus on these younger guys to make sure they know what they’re doing, understand their assignments, but I’m not too worried about them,” Jackson said. “They’re really good and I’m excited for these next couple of years seeing what they do.”

The Mustangs will face their rival, Holmes, on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Gustafson Stadium.

Read more reporting and watch highlights and full games on the Big Game Coverage page.