Quarterback Jack Brooks Shows Leadership Qualities For Granite City Football Team, Is Stillwater Senior Living Athlete Of The Month

GRANITE CITY - Jack Brooks, a sophomore quarterback who was pressed into service for Granite City’s football team in the Warriors' 54-0 loss at Collinsville on Sept. 22, showed much resilience and leadership qualities for the Warriors, who kept working and playing hard throughout the game despite the score.

Despite the lopsided loss, Brooks was seen encouraging and helping his teammates throughout, keeping their spirits up and setting an example by playing hard and not giving up the ship for Granite, who is now 0-5 on the year but keeps on playing hard and never giving up, two solid trademarks of Granite City sports.

For his efforts on the field, Brooks has been selected as a Stillwater Senior Living athlete of the month for the Warriors.

Brooks, who plays for head coach Kindle Lyons, felt the team kept playing hard despite very difficult circumstances and was proud of his teammates' efforts.

"After this loss, I mean, obviously, it's a tough loss," Brooks said in a postgame interview, "but I'm proud of all my guys for coming out here. Like coach (Darrell) Davis (who ran the team in the Collinsville game)said, we faced a lot of adversity. All five of our starters literally just left Thursday. We've just got to keep going. The team's just got to keep doing their thing. A lot of guys had to step up last night, including me. Nobody was expecting it, but I'm feeling pretty good right now. I hope going into these next four weeks, we can get a win."

Despite all the adversity the Warriors have faced, the team's spirits and morale have stayed up and Brooks felt good about how things were progressing.

"I feel really good with my guys," Brooks said. "I'm very confident in them. I think that they will do their thing out there. I mean, I trust all of our O-line, I trust my receivers, I trust my defense. We've just got to bring it all together this week and we've got to be a family. We've just got to go do our thing."

Granite is playing their annual Senior Night game this week against Carbondale at Memorial Stadium/Kevin Greene Field and it's a game Brooks and his teammates are looking forward to

"Yes, sir, I am," Brooks said. "I'm trying to send my seniors off with a nice Senior Night win. I'm trying to have a good night Friday, I want my home crowd cheering, I want to win, I want to hear the band playing. I'm trying to have a good game. I want to go win that game."

In spite of the circumstances, it's still a typical Granite City team that works very hard, keeps playing until the final siren and doesn't give in or give up. They're all great qualities of a Warrior team that represents its blue-collar city very well.

"Yes, sir, it is," Brooks said. "We have not given up yet, and hopefully, we can just keep going and go get us some wins now and go do our thing."

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