The Wow Factor
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Every once in a while athletes come along and you get the opportunity to watch them up close and personal and you catch yourself saying WOW a lot when you watch these athletes do things that you only wish you could do.
One of those special athletes is junior to be Randon Jernigan.
Jernigan has just finished the summer travel baseball season. Try on these numbers on for size from summer baseball:
Perfect Game Tournaments in Atlanta/Ft. Myers, Florida
Led team in batting average .610 (25 for 41)
Led team in runs scored (18)
Led team in stolen bases
Fielded 100% 14 for 14
Randon was timed from home plate to first base at 3.65 seconds this summer which is insanely fast.
If Jernigan lays down a bunt he is almost impossible to throw out, and he has developed that talent quite nicely.
Randon’s grandfather ran a record time 9.8 100 yard dash in Appling County that stood for years a record he set in 1965. His uncle was a hard hitting athletic safety for a pretty stout 1985 Red Terror playoff team that won 10 games, and his father was a letterman for Glynn in the late 1980’s. The family tree has been blessed with athletic ability.
He set a school record in stolen bases as a freshman at BHS in 2015 and batted .370 and made all region honors in baseball as a freshman and sophomore at Glynn Academy for Coach Greg Roberts Red Terror squad that fell 1-0 in a third and deciding game to state baseball power Greenbrier. Roberts has a powerhouse squad returning 2017 led by Jernigan.
As a freshman quarterback at Brunswick in 2014, Jernigan became the first QB in Pirate history to rush and pass for over 1,000 yards in one season.
He won the starting QB job that summer and went on to become the region offensive player of the year as a 9th grader. Yes folks as a 9th grader.
As a radio broadcaster for Pirate football a game that stands out to me was a 208 yards rushing performance at Statesboro at Womack Field in a Pirate win. Jernigan led to Pirates to a state playoff appearance, but missed the Stockbridge game due to a sprained ankle suffered in the season finale against Ware County.
In 2015, in the most electric atmosphere this writer has ever seen in Glynn County Stadium history Jernigan won player of the game honors against Ware County to help lead Glynn Academy to a State Championship game appearance.
Jernigan set the tone by burning the Ware secondary like morning toast on a 45 yard TD pass from Dee Jay Dallas, and in the second half caught a huge 20 yard pass on 3rd and 18 to keep a GA drive alive when Ware had captured momentum in the contest.
Fast forward to this upcoming football season where Jernigan will lead a talented Glynn wide receiver group into the season. During the Spring Football contest Jernigan was on full display ripping off big runs on reverses, catching long passes, and even running the option package to perfection like an Oklahoma quarterback during the Barry Switzer years.
The Glynn Academy Red Terror football team is loaded with talent in 2016 and ranked in every top 5 preseason poll this writer has seen. Jernigan will play a prominent role in the success of the Red Terrors in 2016.
Glynn County if you have never seen this kid play football or baseball you are missing a treat. What is best about Jernigan is he has the grades to get into Stanford and when you ask him a question you get a yes sir or no sir answer. Qualities our society needs more of today.
In 2014 at a game in Coffee County, Jernigan broke of a 74 yard TD run for BHS. All I could say in the BHS broadcast was WOW.
As a die-hard Pirate, I’m afraid that on the night of October 14, 2016 I will be saying WOW in reference to Randon Jernigan a time or two during the City Championship game in Glynn County.
This kid is a Division 1 Football player, and will be drafted right out of high school for professional baseball.
Come witness the WOW many of us know about. Glynn County has some great athletes in the system right now.
