Vanden High football player Jamai East is The Reporter Athlete of the Week

By Corey Kirk

The Reporter

The work of a two-way player on the gridiron is perceived that with good enough stamina, they can make an impact on both sides of the ball.

However, according Vanden Vikings senior Jamai East, it’s much more than meets the eye — it’s being able to recognize your strengths and step out when you are feeling tired.

“People think you need to have stamina to stay in the whole game,” he said. “Stamina is a plus, but you have to know when to take yourself out to preserve yourself because especially in a game like this when you go 100 percent on offense, you are not going to be able to go 100 percent on defense. You just have to learn when to be a team player and be like, ‘OK you can get this one and let me catch my breath and go in the next rep.”

Being a nuisance on both sides of the ball on Saturday, East found the end zone three times on offense, once on defense amid two interceptions. The Vikings won their first Sac-Joaquin Section title in 26 years with a 49-21 win over Merced.

Throughout the season, head coach Sean Murphy has enjoyed watching East step into a leadership role in his last high school season.

“He’s growing as a leader; he’s always been a tremendous athlete,” Murphy said. “He worked really hard on his offseason to work on his pass catching, and his hands and to make catches. He’s always been able to make the really athletic catches, but he’s worked really hard in paying attention to detail and being able to make those catches thrown right to him.”

East admitted that playing in the middle of the day was definitely new. A weight of a section title was on his mind, but along with his teammates, the main goal was to remain loose. Music helped with that.

“Just preparing ourselves with everything, for me individually I would just listen to music, watch highlights and get my mindset in, and the team (does the) same thing — just bumpin ‘music and vibin’ to it,” East said.

On the offensive side of the ball, East was electric in the air, as he caught a 55-yard, 8-yard and 13-yard touchdown passes from junior QB Tre Dimes.

While Merced prepared for senior Michael Belk and sophomore Brayden Chavez in coverage, it left East going one-on-one with a lone defender.

“They left Jamai one-on-one,” Murphy said. “It’s a dangerous thing to do to leave Jamai one-on-one. He made some big catches throughout the game.”

Early on in the fourth quarter, East read Merced QB Seth Schedit in the pocket, and he was able to get his hands on a 24-yard pick-six in a play that Murphy felt they had crushed the Bears’ morale of a potential comeback.

“The first one of the interceptions was a real dagger for the heart of Merced and it put us up by three touchdowns and it made it really tough emotionally to believe they were able to come back — not that they quit but it gave us an emotional high at that point,” Murphy said.

Being one of his two interceptions, East was just happy to contribute to the overall team effort.

“I was scooting inside, inside into the box and I kept looking and seeing the quarterback looking at the slot and looking at the boundary and the sideline so I was like, ‘OK he is definitely throwing an out route or something,” East said. “I baited it, ran straight to the out route and the ball was right there, I took it and took it for six.”

As the final whistle sounded, and the section title was secured, a sense of relief came across the entire Vikings program. After going through so much tragedy the last two years, it’s been the driving force to succeed.

“It’s gratifying to see the student athletes have the success they have been working so hard for, to do it in Daniel’s (Hughes) honor and the coaches we lost, coach Belk and coach Garner…it was just a lot for our student athletes and their resiliency,” Murphy said.

With the win, Vanden will now head to Windsor (11-1) on Friday in the Division 3-AA State Semifinals.

Murphy is excited to maintain a regular routine for East and the rest of his teammates to prepare for Windsor.

“They (Windsor) have a 3-5 or a 3-4 which we haven’t seen much this year. We have seen more forefronts, It’s a challenge for our offense,” Murphy said. “Defensively they have a very athletic quarterback, throws the ball well and runs the ball really well. Some interesting match-ups on defense as well.”

After being eliminated early on in his sophomore season, and a pandemic shortened junior season, East is confident in himself and his teammates.

“This is something that is really exciting, and every day me and my team are working really hard to get us better,” East said. “Facing against Windsor I feel like we have the best scout team, our scout team really helps our main offense and our main defense.”

Next Game

NorCal Bowl

Friday at Windsor: 7:30 p.m.