When it came to assembling his first coaching staff in 2020, Andrew Jackson’s Christopher Foy drew inspiration from the late Bobby Bowden of Florida State.
“They all have something that I don’t have to bring to the table,” the long-time area coach told First Coast News recently. Foy took over at his alma mater prior to last season. “[Bowden] always said, ‘I want coaches that are better than me.’ And that was the method I used to choose my staff.”
There was Donald Rocker, Foy’s prodigy from his time at Sandalwood High School and a former player at Western Kentucky University. Arena Football League stand-out Devin Wilson was hired as Wide Receivers Coach. Veteran area coaches like Lin-J Shell, formerly the head coach at Ribault High School, joined ahead of Foy’s upcoming, second season.
Foy inherited an Andrew Jackson program that had won just three games in 2019. They hadn’t won more than four since 2010. That included a 19-game losing streak from 2015 to 2017.
In Year One, amidst a global pandemic, Foy’s squad started off 4-1. By virtue of the FHSAA’s 2020 guidelines, they made the playoffs for the first time in decades. More importantly: the culture had shifted.
“Coach Foy has brought us together as a family,” linebacker Grayson Howard explained. “We’re more mentally tough. Now we’re looking at bigger things like the playoffs and State Championships. Definitely, going to college is now a guarantee with Coach Foy.”
"Going into this spring (of 2021), we were fully loaded. I would definitely say that,” Wilson added. “Not just on the roster, but on the coaching staff.”
Then, tragedy.
Rocker, the team’s offensive coordinator, passed away suddenly of congestive heart failure in early May. He was just 26 years old.
"How do you explain that to a 15 year old?” Wilson said. “I mean to be honest with you? I'm 30 years old and how do I explain it to myself? A guy I was just talking to one minute and the next minute he's not here. That's tough.”
Especially tough for Foy.
“I was the first one to ever put a helmet in [Rocker’s] hands,” he explained. “I have a son that’s in our program right now, and it felt like I lost a son… I’ll miss him every day for the rest of my life.”
Rocker was scheduled to bring Howard, a four-star talent, on all his college visits. He was the team’s offensive coordinator and a driving force on the recruiting trail.
“I wasn’t really getting recruited when the new coaching staff came,” Howard explained. “Talking to [Rocker] about everything and him telling me I was a potential Power Five player encouraged me. He was here when I got my first offer… now, having close to 20 offers, I know he’s a huge part of my recruitment. I really miss him and I thank him every day.”
But Howard and his teammates knew within hours of Rocker’s passing: they had to get back on the field. They had to focus on the season ahead.
“That’s what Coach Rock would’ve wanted,” he added.
“Our motto for the spring was just to ‘try.’ That’s all we did was try. Because we were grieving. We had a heavy heart,” Foy said. “Just doing that, we were able to rekindle everything [Rocker] taught us and use it.”
The Tigers leaned on each other. They made it through the spring season. They won their annual spring game.
Then, tragedy. Again.
Lin-J Shell, only having recently re-joined the Jackson staff after spending the previous seasons at Ribault, passed suddenly after a brief fight with COVID-19. The former Jacksonville University and Canadian Football League stand-out was just 39 years old.
More grief. More heartbreak.
“He made one of the biggest influences on my life in a short amount of time,” Foy said. “There’s no way you could ever be within the vicinity of that guy and not know who Lin-J Shell was. His energy was unreal. There was no way you could ever leave his presence and not feel better, and not be inspired, and not be motivated to be a better person.”
Two coaches gone suddenly in the span of four months. Both under the age of 40. The COVID-19 pandemic in his first year as a head coach tested Foy and his players. But this required strength they had never known.
'There was no way to plan for it, and today -- especially coming from a community like this one in an urban neighborhood. I mean, let's be real: death is not something they're strangers to. But this was grief. This was hurt. Because there's no one to blame. There's no one to blame for either one of our situations -- for Coach Rock or Coach Shell.”
The only thing they could do?
"The Tiger Way,” Wilson smiled. “Lean on your brother. And when you get tired, lean on the man next to you."
“I definitely think we're the most mentally strong 15, 16, 17-year old kids in the area. We've been hit with some crazy things,” Howard added.
Foy’s emphasis on strength and conditioning has helped this Jackson program grow physically during his 20-plus month tenure. His coaching staff’s varied expertise has helped many of the Tigers’ college recruitment grow.
But by leaning on each other through this adversity, the Tigers have found strength they never knew they had.
“We’ve been counted out too long. Jackson hasn’t been one of the best programs in the Jacksonville-area, but we’re bringing it back,” Howard said. “We’re not the team that ‘it was just lucky.’ We grinded for everything we’re going to get, and we’re grinding for everything we’re going to have.”
“They bought in. They bought in through the COVID year. They bought in through all the adversity,” Foy reflected. “This group of kids made Andrew Jackson their home.”
And it will still be the same home that welcomed Rocker and Shell into the fold this fall.
The playbook remains largely untouched – the Tigers have kept a lot of Rocker’s “lingo.” Every time the team breaks down the huddle, they either break it down on “Rock” or on “Shell.” Rocker used to always wear his hat backwards on gameday; Wilson and the other offensive coaches have already decided that their hats will be backwards come the season opener against Westside High School on August 27. All this, Wilson says, to ensure it feels as if Rocker and Shell are still there on the sideline.
Then again, perhaps they never left.
“I think in everything our boys do, I think they understand that that's a way to keep their legacy living on."