Houma, La. — The Terrebonne Tigers are coming-off one of their best seasons in recent history and are expected to keep building on that this fall. Part of the reason for their success is junior quarterback, wide receiver and cornerback, Ja’khi Douglas, who’s catching the eye of some top-tier college programs.
“Seems about every 15 years we get one of those SEC-caliber players,” said Terrebonne Head Football Coach Gary Hill. “We’ve had great athletes go to some smaller schools, but as far as SEC goes, it’s about an every 15 year period and he’s going to be the next one.”
Douglas will be starting again at quarterback for the Tigers, but you’ll also see him lining-up as a receiver and playing on the defensive side of the ball too. His versatility has only added to his value as a top prospect in the state.
“It’s not that I’m just a quarterback– I’m an athlete,” Douglas said. “Put me anywhere and I can do things for the team and help the team out. They’re recruiting me as an athlete so where ever they put me, I’m going to just do what I have to do.”
“He’s just an amazing athlete,” Hill said. “He’s very explosive. He’s got elite speed. He’s been clocked at 4.35, 4.38 a couple of times this summer. He’s just an explosive kid and it allows him to be an athlete all over the field.”
And that elite speed has earned him some pretty high praise.
“Positive things are Coach Saban, he told me I could play slot and I could make big plays and that’s what Coach O told me too,” Douglas said.
But his skill-set doesn’t stop there. Douglas has proven himself to be an eager student of the game, constantly working to improve his football IQ.
“He’s got more than just vision and explosion,” Hill said. “He understands down and distance quite well and game situational stuff about getting out of bounds, getting down. His IQ’s just high.”
“If you watch film, you can see what’s going on,” Douglas said. “You can see what kind of defense they’re running and what kind of offense they’re in if I’m on the defensive side of the ball so that plays a big part watching film.'”
“A lot of kids watch film but they watch themselves,” Hill said. “I find he’s starting to do a lot of watching his opponents and he looks for his mistakes instead of what he does good. He looks to improve on a daily basis. His work ethic is really, really good.”
In addition to having Douglas out there, the Tigers have nearly 20 seniors, and they’ve got their sights-set on the Superdome– something they haven’t done since 1983. They made it to the title game that year, but have never won a state title.