The Dunbar football team had their hopes dashed by Catoctin in a 31-8 loss in Saturday’s 1A state championship game. But with a young team that just finished 12-2, the Poets look to get back to work and finish the job in 2020.
Fourteen seniors are set to graduate, with major contributor Dion Crews-Harris the biggest departure. Crews-Harris played on the Poets’ last championship team in 2017 as a sophomore and has faith in the younger players to step up in the future to deliver another title to 1400 Orleans Street.
“I’m proud that we have a sophomore quarterback, two junior running backs — most of our O-line are juniors, a lot of our defense is [made up of] juniors,” Crews-Harris said. “I’m proud of them — I’m proud of this brotherhood.”
Coach Lawrence Smith has a great deal of youth on his team. Twenty-nine of 43 players will return for Dunbar. As hard as Saturday’s loss was, it also could serve as a learning experience.
“Naturally, you cannot replace a Dion Crews — you just can’t,” Smith said. “That kid doesn’t come along every year, but when you get your entire receiving corps back, get your entire backfield, your quarterback and your tackles, they are going to build off of it. If they want to do what they have to do, they will build off of it and they want to get back to it.
“I can tell you, it’s a learning curve. We can talk about life lessons and these are the life lessons. Naturally, everyone wants to win this game, but like I explained to our seniors, these are life lessons that you will take on to the next level. For our younger guys, if you want to get back here you know what you have to do during the offseason. When you have this taste in your mouth, you usually don’t want that taste back again.”
Quarterback Karon Moore is a sophomore, wide receiver Tyreek Sykes is a junior, running backs Jeremiah White and Kenyon Washington are juniors and several other key players will return.
Moore had a tough individual performance in an otherwise outstanding sophomore season. He finished 8-for-20 for 108 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions, and was sacked twice. As soon as the game ended, he looked at building a strong foundation for the next season.
“Next month, we’ll be back doing the same thing in the weight room and the field,” Moore said. “We’ll be back on the same thing and be on our grind.”
The top-seeded Dunbar team had a strong contingent of juniors and sophomores that have stepped up this season. Sykes made strides this season, playing quarterback while Moore rehabbed from injury and then playing receiver and serving as a leader for the offense.
Sykes and his fellow receivers have constant discussions on how they can get better. As one of Dunbar’s leaders, he looks to return back to the state championship next year and finish off his high school career with a bang.
“We talk every day,” Sykes said. “We go to the field very often, we hang out very often, we all go to school together. So, we’re all together. We talk about the games, how hard we’re going to work and get in the weight room as much as we can. We’ll be back next year.”