Greatest Game

Takeem Hedgman is the greatest high school football player I have ever seen. Ever since we were in fifth grade the town was talking about his skill on the football field. He was a legend locally even before he stepped through the doors of Monticello High School for the first time. The news papers would have headlines like, “Takeem the Dream”, “Keem’s Team”, and “Sonic the Hedgehog” for how fast he was. He had speed, quickness, and agility like no one else I had ever seen and people in the community were noticing.

At the start of his high school career he was the starter and he never relinquished that role until he left as a senior. He never missed a game for any reason. But there was always one question about a great player that everyone loves to talk about and debate, and that is; Can he win a Championship?

Up until his senior season that had not come true yet. So Takeem went out to prove to everyone that he could win it all. He had a mentality I had never seen before. During his senior year there would be games where he scored 6 touchdowns and have 300 yards at halftime, and he wouldn’t play the rest of the game. He set the all-time Virginia record for touchdowns in a season with 51 and had over 3,000 yards for the year.

But all of those statistics didn’t mean anything if he never got a ring.

It was an ice cold Friday night in December. The first round of the Virginia high school playoffs were going on and Monticello was losing by 21-17 with 2:32 left on the clock. It had been a hardnosed game all night back and forth. They had the ball at their own 20 yard line and had to drive 80 yards to win the game. At a time like this you usually see teams airing it out and trying to throw down field as much as possible to try and score. But not this team, not with Takeem.

The first play was a hand off to Takeem and he made one cut up field, ran the safety over, and ran for a 30 yard gain. The home crowd went insane, the sideline was jumping up and down getting ready for what we all knew was coming next. Now with the clock running they pitched the ball to him twice and both plays go nowhere. Third and twelve with the ball around midfield and 1:20 remaining on the clock. What do you do? Hand off up the middle and Takeem made the best play in one single run that I had seen. He was jump cutting, spinning, and carrying defenders down field. He got all the way to the two yard line. The field was shaking from everyone screaming and cheering in the stands and on the field. Next play, touchdown. Monticello eventually won the game and went on easily to win the State Championship behind their leader at running back.

It was the first time I have ever seen a team that was willing to stick to the run regardless of what the clock said. With the season on the line Takeem put on a show and it is something that I will never forget as long as I live.