Through the first half of the 2020s, Waco Connally has emerged as Texas High School Football’s most underrated Division I hotbed. Oklahoma State cornerback Korie Black and Sam Houston linebacker Kavian Gaither kickstarted the trend, followed by a string of Texas Longhorns in Tre Wisner, Jelani McDonald, and Kobe Black.

Head coach Terry Gerik doesn’t credit coaching. He says you know it when they’re in eighth or ninth grade. They’re different. They have the ‘Juice.’

Jamarion Vincent, the next Connally Cadet to rank up as a Baylor cornerback commit, is a prime example. Gerik witnessed the Juice when Vincent quarterbacked the freshman team. Down their best running back, Vincent scored five touchdowns in the first half. The only people who could stop him were the coaches.

“We had to pull him off the field because he was going to score every time,” Gerik said.

But Gerik’s second memory from that night has nothing to do with his play. After Vincent was pulled, he stood next to his teammates on the sidelines, as engaged in the game congratulating others as he was scoring touchdowns. That’s when Gerik knew his high school career would turn into something special.

They haven’t yanked him off the field since he reached the varsity level. As a junior, Vincent earned First Team District 12-4A DII Utility Player after totaling 1,941 yards and 23 touchdowns as a quarterback and 34 tackles with eight pass breakups as a cornerback. He even returned a fumble and a kickoff for touchdowns.

Vincent, the No.1-ranked cornerback in the Dave Campbell’s ‘Hot 100’, will specialize on defense once he reaches Big 12 football. But all the Division I athletes who’ve come out of Connally have played both ways, and most have lined up at quarterback.

“We try to put the best athlete we have at that quarterback position,” Gerik said. “By the time we get to district, they have to be playing on the defensive side of the ball, too, if they’re one of our top guys.”

Whenever Vincent gets tired, he thinks about watching McDonald and Black as a freshman and remembers what he must do to get to where they are now.

“It's a standard that you have to meet,” Vincent said.

Except there’s one area where Vincent may have surpassed the greats who came before him.

“He’s probably one of the most competitive young men that I’ve coached,” Gerik said.

Vincent’s future might be on the football field, but he competes year-round. He’s an All-Region basketball player, and his verified 4.5 40-yard dash speed and 32-inch vertical jump also translate to track and field.

Recognition and accolades aren’t driving Vincent. When his mother, Brittany, was contacted for this story, she asked her son if he’d heard about it. Already did the interview, he said. When Brittany used to pick him up from daycare at 3 years old, the childcare worker suggested speech therapy because he never talked.

Every rep and play is a chance to beat the person in front of him - and his own personal best. That’s what really matters.

That attitude stems from his mother raising him alone. Brittany used to run down the sidelines, keeping pace with him when he scored touchdowns in elementary school, although she couldn’t keep up by the time he was 10. Mom attacks life like her son does football, working daily from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. to support him. She’ll gladly play that game to watch her son play his.

“He gives it his all in everything,” Brittany said. “He’s going to dunk on you, he might jump over you in football. I tell people all the time, ‘Come watch him, it’s a sight to see.’”