NORFOLK, Va. — Many high school football practice fields sit calm and undisturbed the second week of December. Maury, however, is still beating up the turf outside the school, not unfamiliar to the Commodores.
"A lot of teams are home playing basketball and they're on the couch chilling while we're out here still putting in work," smiled Maury senior running back Leon Clark. "It just feels good to still be out here practicing."
"It never gets old and when you get there, you never want to go backwards again," added Commodores' head coach Dyrri McCain. "You always want to get back to that same situation and feeling."
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McCain's team will take the field on state championship Saturday for the fourth straight season and for the fifth time in the last six years. This time, however, Maury has a chance to make some history and win back-to-back state crowns for the first time.
"We've got to come ready to play," the head coach said. "We're trying to accomplish the big goal of making history. Making school history is what we're trying to do."
"Just being the first ones to do it at Maury and go back-to-back and we can always hold that, all the seniors, we can leave out saying we went back-to-back," Clark noted.
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Briar Woods is the team standing in the Commodores' way. The Falcons, who hail from Ashburn, enter with a 10-3 record and dethroned perennial power Stone Bridge to reach the Class 5 state title contest. They were the number two seed in Region 5D.
"This team sees their first opportunity of getting here in long while and we can't take them lightly," McCain pointed out. "We can't let our experience get us in a comfortable state. We can't let that happen."
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That experience, however, can also help. Many of Maury's upperclassmen know the feeling of losing at this stage, with the Commodores' state championship game defeats in 2021 and 2022. Nearly all of this year's roster was part of last season's 15-0 showing that ended with a state crown. Maury posted its fair share of blowout wins this campaign, but had a few close ones as well, including this past weekend's 20-14 state semifinal win over Green Run, so the team feels prepared for whatever comes its way Saturday.
"I feel like we've been through it all," senior wide receiver Lebron Bond said. "We blew teams out, we've been through adversity, too. I feel like it's going to be good for us going into the next game."
"Any of these situations and moments are not going to be [anything] new to us," noted McCain. "Having that experience is huge."
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Now this year's Commodores have a chance to write another storied chapter for this program and etch themselves at the beginning of an exclusive list.
"This group has a chance to cement [itself] in something that's never been done," said the head coach. "Even if it's done 50 years from now, 60 years from now, they'll always be able to hang their hats on being the first ones."
The Commodores are 14-0 and enter Saturday's contest on a 29 game winning streak. Briar Woods won three consecutive state crown from 2010-2012 and returned to the state finals in 2013.
Maury and Briar Woods kick off in the Class 5 state championship game Saturday at 11:30 AM. The contest takes place at James Madison University's Bridgeforth Stadium.
