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1996 JM-Brookville memories still vivid
BY RICH CAMPBELL Mark Lineburg awoke on the morning of Dec. 7, 1996, when his father, Norman, threw open the curtains in his Fredericksburg hotel room. The weather outside was frightful. Make that a nightmare. His heart sank. "It was absolutely just pouring, snowing and sleeting," he said. It was supposed to be a glorious day, the day on which his Brookville football team played for the program's first state championship. James Monroe stood in the Bees' path, and now, it seemed, the weather did, too. "You can't play this game in these conditions," said Norman, whose insistence carried the weight of 34 years of head-football coaching experience. But Lineburg, Brookville's 27-year-old head coach at the time, believed his team would prevail, regardless. Besides, this was the state championship. There's no bigger game. Surely, it couldn't be postponed.
So Brookville and James Monroe slogged through a quagmire at Spotsylvania High that afternoon. Steady rain that began the three days earlier transformed what was expected to be a thrilling matchup between James Monroe's speedsters and the Bees' brawn into a three-way Battle Royal between both teams and Mother Nature. By the time both teams found refuge from the elements, only the Yellow Jackets could get warm. Backup running back Shannon Wallace capitalized on his only carry of the game, which he earned after star running back Trell Parker left temporarily to have mud cleaned from his eyes. Wallace scored a 36-yard touchdown in the third quarter, lifting James Monroe to a 7-0 win and the program's third state championship.
Date published: 12/5/2008
LET'S GO JACKETS!!!
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