FLEMING ISLAND - As football season gets closer and closer and Clay County football starts to ramp up to a feverish pitch every Friday night into November, the names of players from past years often pop up as football aficionados pass legends around in casual conversation to determine just who was the best guy out of "these parts."

"The common characteristic was their relentless effort to get better every day," said former Clay High icon Joshua Hoekstra, now at The Bolles School after a decade run of deep region runs and a Class 5A runner-up finish in 2013, the furthest since Clay's 1967 Class B title. "At Clay, they all loved the weight room; heavily influenced by Jay Stilianou and Rodney Keller."
Stilianou was Hoekstra's fiery defensive coordinator and a one-year head coach when Hoekstra left while Keller was a linebackers coach and now is a fitness and strength consultant after leaving Clay High with a wheelbarrow full of girls' weightlifting titles and champions.
For Hoekstra, his list of great players started with offensive lineman Will Holden, now an NFL player and included names such as Sean Grayer, a defensive end at South Alabama, Jarrod Leeds, a Georgia Southern offensive tackle and a former Clay High offensive line coach; tackle Mike Howard, a towering figure for Mississippi that was one of scariest guys ever out of Clay High football.
Among Clay's notables were a batch of running backs; Bilal Ally, Aundre Carter, Colin Wilson and Shannon Asbell that delivered backbreaking touchdown runs from anywhere on the field.
For Jim Reape, Clay's long-time football coach before Hoekstra, NFL star and Super Bowl champion Cliff Avril, a defensive end, was his "scary guy off the bus" with another NFL star, Nolan Carroll, a second obvious choice.
"Cliff had a good internal compass for what he wanted to accomplish," said Reape, still on the Clay sidelines today and still a Hall of Fame wrestling coach for the Blue Devils. "Nolan kept transforming and improving; always working and growing to get better."
Two coaches who got to see a couple of NFL guys while in Clay County, Steve Reynolds and Derek Chipoletti; still coaching with Reynolds at Keystone Heights High and Chipoletti at Fleming Island.
Both Reynolds and Chipoletti took time at Oakleaf High in the past decade with Chipoletti bringing Oakleaf a district title and a region final finish in 2014 with the likes of Shaquille Quarterman and Chris Westry, plus a few NCAA Division I standouts like Nick Roberts (South Florida) and Rontrez Morgan (Indiana State).
"I don't know if there was a single defining characteristic for all of those guys we had," said Chipoletti, who also had time with Fleming Island in the founding days of the Golden Eagles. "Shaquille Quarterman, Chris Westry, Aaron Duckworth, Darrion Owens all had great college careers, but, I think, as far as impacting our program; Austin Chipoletti, quarterback and Shaq, raised the bar at Oakleaf. A couple of them just had great DNA, the others realized that effort could overcome DNA or talent."
Quarterman has been a seven-year player for the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars after being drafted out of the University of Miami with Westry, out of the University of Kentucky, playing for the Dallas Cowboys. Owens was at the University of Miami a year before Quarterman and Duckworth had a four-year career at the University of Idaho as a leading rusher before doing some assistant coaching for the Vandals.
As for his dad, Fleming Island's first football coach, Neal Chipoletti, his choices were his quarterback Ryan Aplin, and offensive lineman Ian Silberman, who had NFL stops at Oakland Raiders, and San Francisco 49ers and coached back in Clay County recently.
"Eric Johnson, a little-known guy on our team, was probably pound for pound the best player we've ever coached," said both Derek and Neal Chipoletti.
Reynolds, who took over at Oakleaf after Frank Garis came and left after he replaced Chipoletti, had his choices as offensive lineman Jalen Rivers, now a senior at U of Miami; Chantz Williams, a defensive end who was at Miami and is now at Charlotte, Nick Roberts and former Virginia Tech running back Keyshawn King, now at Western Michigan University.
Damenyum Springs, who coached Fleming Island football after Frank Hall left the program in 2017 and put the Golden Eagles deep into the region playoffs; seasons of 11-3, 10-1 and 10-4, with the likes of linebacker Ryan Smenda (Wake Forest/NFL Rams), tackle Ian Silberman (Florida/Boston/NFL 49ers) and lineman Armando Bonheur (Samford U, NY Giants).
"They all had the size and grit and were determined to get the job done," said Springs, now in Georgia. "They also had that little bit of nastiness on the field."
Springs noted that tight end Cory White could have been the best of them all had knee injuries not ended his college stints at Miami and Florida International University.
One other trait that former Ridgeview quarterback Matt Knauss noticed in his short stint in Clay County (2020 with region playoff finish, 7-4), recently released from North Bay Haven Academy in the Florida Panhandle, had players that he remembered in Glenn Miller, now a safety at University of Maryland, Eddie Whipple, wide receiver, now at Highland Community College, and quarterback Max Monroe, now at Presbyterian College.
"Those three guys were here in my second year after we gave the school its first winning season in a while and a playoff game," said Knauss. "Their contribution was that those three always put the team first. I had another guy, Denali Lindo, who would have been right there but he broke his leg in the second game."
Knauss remembered Miller's excellence despite his first season being less than stellar.
"Glen played on our rebuild team when I first got here and he still succeeded week after week," said Knauss. "Guys like that, even Whipple, knew that their skill sets would be noticed if they just played hard every game."
Knauss noted that Miller had a key interception returned for a touchdown in a Maryland bowl game against Penn State last year.
For Middleburg High coach Ryan Wolfe, who has been around the county as an assistant coach at Fleming Island, Orange Park and Clay, the names are endless, but the trait is similar.
"It's a combination of talent, effort, character and accountability," said Wolfe. "I have seen a ton of talent that have had great college careers and even some NFL."
Wolfe listed names like Bilal Ally and Colin Wilson at Clay (RBs at Massachusetts and Louisville), Mike Mitchell and TJ Lane at Middleburg (RBs at Utah and West Florida) and Clay linemen Mike Howard and Zach Baker, plus, from Orange Park, Terrance Plummer (LB at UCF, NFL Redskins, CFL Grey Cup champion) and Jacob Hagan (Safety at Liberty, NFL Cleveland Browns), plus Clay's Will Holden (OL at Vanderbilt/NFL Giants, Cardinals).
From Middleburg, where Gary Barnidge was NFL tight end for Cleveland Browns and Richard Owens also a tight end, both went to Liberty and both became prominent coaches and camp officials, former players who became coaches Karl Smeltzer, now at Ponte Vedra High, and Rob Justino, not coaching, but still at Middleburg High, had some interesting names on their lists including Alex Bradley, Jacksonville University linebacker, and Patrick Nixon, a defensive back that excelled at Illinois plus wide receiver Jake Jones, a small, very fast athlete that went to Berry College in their early days of football.
"Jake went to NCAA Div III playoffs with a new program right off the bat; Alex Bradley is now a commander in the U.S. Navy and if I'm right, Patrick was a 4.3 40 guy that had tons of raw talent," said Justino. "All three were very coachable with high intelligence and drive."
For Smeltzer, his guys included, ironically, Daniel Justino, a kicker quarterback who stayed kicker with the University of Florida, Northwestern State and eventually the Jacksonville Sharks and Orlando Predators in the Arena Football League with mammoth offensive lineman Cole LeClair, now a senior at McNeese State, and Carvin Duverge, a linebacker that got big stats at Arkansas State after a brief stop in junior college.
"I would say all three had tremendous work ethic," said Smeltzer.
One all-state guy and a college workhorse, Orange Park's all-state defensive end Kendy Charles, was one of the best under coach Tom Macpherson's coaching with Macpherson, now at Bishop Kenny, having a long successful tenure at Ridgeview, then Baker County and finally a recent stint at Orange Park.
"I got three; Kendy Charles and Roderick Kearney (now at Florida, center); both at Orange Park, and, from Ridgeview, Ramsey Meyers, a four-year starting tackle at Kentucky," said Macpherson. "All three were big, strong and had great feet."
Charles had four years at Liberty at defensive end and is now with Duke.