MANSFIELD — Hugh Douglas menaced NFL quarterbacks for a decade. Were it not for former Mansfield Senior coach Stan Jefferson, it never would have been possible.
A Mansfield Senior product, Douglas was the featured speaker on Day 1 of the Nike Football Skills Camp at Arlin Field on Monday. His message to the 100-plus campers was a simple one.
“All these people here who are working with you right now, they see something in you that you probably don’t even see in yourself,” said Douglas, a three-time Pro Bowl selection with the Philadelphia Eagles from 2000 to 2002.
“Believe in the people who are in your corner who are trying to help you and trying to mentor you,” said Douglas, who finished his career with 80 career QB sacks, including a career-high 15 with the Eagles in 2000.
“You’ve got to listen to the people who are out here putting in time trying to make you a better person because they see it in you. They see the potential in you,” he said.
For Douglas, those people were Jefferson, now the district superintendent, former Mansfield Senior football coach Steve Gilbert and former track coach Khalil Ali.
They pushed Douglas during his time at Senior High and helped him get into Central State University, where Douglas blossomed into a two-time NAIA Division I All-American and helped the Marauders win a national championship in 1992.
“The only reason I played football is Stan Jefferson. Coach J was the guy who told me I should go play football,” said Douglas, selected with the 16th overall pick by the New York Jets in the first round of the 1995 NFL draft.
“First, I started running track. Coach J bought me my first pair of track shoes. Coach J was the one who told me I should go play football. Coach Steve Gilbert was there, too … and Khalil Ali. Those were the three people in my life who started me on my journey to play football.
“I wasn’t the biggest guy on my football team. I wasn’t the fastest. But they saw something in me and they pushed me to go to school.”
The AFC’s Defensive Rookie of the Year with the Jets in 1995, Douglas made a lasting impression on current Mansfield Senior football coach and Nike Football Skills Camp director Chioke Bradley.
Bradley was a senior star for the Tygers when Jake Soliday was an impressionable freshman.
Soliday would go on to play college football at Northern Iowa and signed with the Arizona Cardinal as a rookie free agent. He played briefly with the Cardinals in 2002, including in a game against Douglas and the Eagles in Philadelphia.
Like Douglas, Soliday returned to his hometown to take part in the camp. Douglas is a radio personality in Atlanta, while Soliday is a firefighter in suburban Phoenix.
“It’s surreal to come back to your home stadium and be on the field with so many memories of my high school career and even being a little kid and watching games at Arlin Field. Watching some of the athletes and players who came before me that I wanted to emulate,” Soliday said.
“Chioke was a senior when I was a freshman and I remember working out with him in the summertime when he would come back from Bowling Green and trying to outwork him because I wanted to be the next Chioke Bradley.
“To be able to come home and do a camp like this, this is a great thing for the city of Mansfield.”
