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Douglass cornerback Aaron Johnson was not going to play football this season. Two torn anterior cruciate ligaments in two years left him demoralized, so Eagles’ defensive coordinator Bill Johnson made him an inspiring promise.
“Bill told me if I come back, we’d win the state title,” Aaron Johnson said. “And we won it.”
The guarantee was a gutsy one: Douglass had never won a state championship. But the promise was calculated, too. From the moment the 2013 season ended, the reloaded and experienced Eagles were the 2A favorites, near locks to at least challenge for a championship with a devastating defense built around big-bodied, experienced players coached into humility and hunger. By year’s end, they fulfilled Johnson’s promise and left no doubt about it, going 14-0 and taking the Maryland 2A championship as the area’s most dominant team to earn a place atop the Post’s year-end rankings for the first time in school history.
Johnson made six interceptions and finished fourth on the team in total tackles as one of several stars on a defense that transcended its competition. Douglass won its 14 games by an average of nearly 40 points per game. The Eagles forced running clocks in every one of their playoff games. They recorded seven shutouts and averaged more than 300 yards of total offense.
But what enabled this Douglass team to do what no other had done — win a state title — was the fact that the Eagles believed, but never assumed.
