Losers no more: Mourning High football team ends five-year, 41-game skid

There were no state championships to be won at North Miami Stadium on Friday afternoon. But nobody would’ve ever convinced the Alonzo and Tracy Mourning football team of that.

Sharks players grabbed any water coolers they could find and let loose, dousing anyone they could find after the final whistle had blown and they had just defeated Miami Country Day, 27-14.

Why were Sharks players going crazy?

Because the win snapped a 41-game losing streak for the program dating back five years almost to the day. It was Sept. 22, 2017 when Mourning celebrated its previous victory, defeating Westland Hialeah 21-0. Mourning was closing in on a record nobody wants to have: the state record for consecutive losses (47), which Westland set between 2013 and 2018. Ironically, the Wildcats snapped that long losing streak with a 6-0 win over Mourning in 2018.

“I’ve been here since I was in eighth grade and always had a dream of getting a win here at this school,” said senior running back Stefan St. Jean. “This is just so surreal, I don’t think it’s even sunk in yet what we just did. What a great day for us.”

St. Jean was a big reason the Sharks got that long-elusive ‘W’ on Friday as he rushed for more than 150 yards and scored a big touchdown at a key moment in the game.

After Mourning got off to a great start, building a 13-0 second quarter lead on a 48-yard interception return for a touchdown by cornerback Alvintino Charles and a two-yard quarterback sneak by Ayden Chapa (two plays after Chapa had hit Markenson Laforest for a 30-yard pass play on 4th and 16 to the Country Day 2-yard line), they saw all of the momentum slip away.

Country Day scored on a short 3-yard interception return for a score to cut the Sharks’ lead to 13-7 at the half and then scored early in the third quarter to go up 14-13.

But two plays after they fell behind, the Sharks, namely St. Jean, responded when he took a pitch from Chapa around the right side and skirted the far sideline for a 64-yard touchdown run. Khydon Collier then ran in the two point conversion to put Mourning up 21-14.

After the defense got a three-and-out, running back Woodmiter Terassaint found a crack in the left side and it was off to the races for a 60-yard touchdown run with three minutes left in the third quarter.

The Mourning defense took over from there not allowing the Spartans, a struggling private school program who fell to 0-4, to crossed the 50 the rest of the way.

“What a moment for these kids today, they deserved every minute of this,” said first-year Mourning coach John Downs, who moved down from the Boston area last spring after serving as an assistant coach at Springfield College. “I absolutely fell in love with these kids from day one. They’ve fought and battled through so many ups and downs with all the cards stacked against them and have just prevailed through it. It’s really easy when everything is going well and you’re winning games, that’s easy to be around. But when you’re losing a lot, that’s when you have to rely on the culture, the brotherhood and the belief that you’re doing things the right way. Look at that locker room right now.”

Downs pointed to a noisy and raucous Sharks locker room playing lots of loud music and players talking about how they were going to celebrate. One of those off in a corner was St. Jean.

“I could’ve gone somewhere else and played and won games,” St. Jean said. “But there was always just something about wanting to stay right here and stick it out and I’m really proud that I did that. Coach Downs has made all the difference. He came in last spring and immediately started instilling confidence in us and convincing us that we could play and compete.”

Said Downs: “It’s all been a learning process. That’s what we always talk about, failing forward, learning from our mistakes. Now I’ve got a team that can’t wait until next week. Credit to my coaching staff because it’s been a long road and a lot of folks have had my back through all of this and I’m really grateful.”

This story was originally published September 24, 2022 at 12:17 AM.