Harrisonburg High School has a rich football history, with former coaches Brownie Cummins and Tim Sarver posting major success over an extended stretch.
In its 100th season in 2021, the program held game No. 1,000 in that unique spring, pandemic-induced campaign.
Cummins, who went into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame in 2008, coached from 1970-1980 and won four regional titles with the Blue Streaks. His record at HHS was 96-23-3 with six outright district titles and three unbeaten regular-season squads.
“He did change the whole football culture of Harrisonburg,” former player Reggie Smith noted to this reporter in 2020.
“I played for Coach Cummins from 1970-1972 in which we won District and won a game going into the State Championships,” Robert Neff wrote on legacy.com after Cummins passed in 2011. “This was the start of a dynasty for Harrisonburg Football. I remember Coach Cummins as being pragmatic, a strategist, forward-thinking and very personable with the players. I remembered that during this time he bought a bus for the program and that seemed very uptown at the time. I received a scholarship after playing for Coach Cummins.”
Cummins also coached at Grundy High in Southwest Virginia and at Gar-Field in Northern Virginia and was the principal at Spotswood High. He was one of five siblings – all born on Feb. 20.
Sarver was 216-82 in 26 seasons, including a state title, while at Harrisonburg, from 1985-2010. He coached at Bath County before coming to the central Shenandoah Valley. “Coach Sarver prides himself on playing with class, and that might be more important to him than any victory,” then-HHS senior offensive tackle Landon Turner told hhsmedia.com in 2011.
While the Blue Streaks have not won a state title since 2001, Harrisonburg is the only high school in Rockingham County to send a former player to the NFL. And the school has four alums who have made it to the top level.
Here is a look at them, per footballreference.com:
Landon Turner
The offensive lineman left Harrisonburg and played in college for North Carolina.
He played seven games with New Orleans in 2016. The quarterback for the Saints that season was Drew Brees.
Born in Morgantown, West Virginia, Turner was listed at 6-foot-4, 325 pounds during his playing days. Turner turned 32 in May.
“Landon already knew that he wanted to play college football. He knew the Lord had given him gifts that showed all the way through his career,” Sarver told hhsmedia.com in 2016. “He had a great desire to excel. I think that reflects his parents and his upbringing. Landon always gave 100 percent whether it was in the classroom or on the field.”
Akeem Jordan
Jordan, 40, starred for the Blue Streaks then went across town to play for JMU.
He was drafted by Philadelphia in 2007 and played 100 games in the NFL as a linebacker with the Eagles, Kansas City and Washington through the 2014 campaign. Jordan had two interceptions in his career and 332 tackles while making 44 starts in the NFL. Jordan also played for Toronto of the Canadian Football League.
He was listed at 6-1, 226 pounds while in the NFL. Jordan was teammates on the Eagles with quarterback Michael Vick, the former Virginia Tech star who is now the head coach at Norfolk State.
Jordan was arrested on assault and battery charges that were later dropped in 2006, according to whsv.com. He was also arrested and charged on misdemeanor assault and battery charges in Harrisonburg in 2011, according to the Daily News-Record.
The USA Today database on arrests of NFL players since 2000 lists the outcome of the 2011 incident as: resolution undetermined.
John Wade
The offensive lineman was not highly recruited out of high school and landed at Marshall in West Virginia.
The Thundering Herd was coming off a Division I-AA national title, and Wade was part of another championship squad at Marshall.
Wade, 50, was drafted out of college in the fifth round in 1998 by Jacksonville.
He played for the Jaguars through 2002, then saw action with Tampa Bay from 2003-07. He finished his NFL career with Oakland in 2008.
In all, Wade played 131 games with 110 starts. Mark Brunell was the quarterback for Jacksonville when Wade was a rookie.
In recent years, Wade has been a volunteer assistant coach at Spotswood High while running the local car dealer that bears the name of his late father, Bob Wade.
“I enjoy watching the (NFL) games. I do love the game of football,” John Wade told AFP earlier this year.
His daughter, Raygan, had a team-high 478 assists for Division III Roanoke this season in volleyball as a sophomore. She is a graduate of Spotswood. Her brother, Ryland, was a senior offensive lineman this season for Spotswood Football.
Howard Stevens
The first Harrisonburg High graduate to make the NFL (Ralph Sampson would make the NBA 10 years later, in 1983), Stevens played in college at Randolph-Macon and at Louisville. Stevens, now 75, was drafted in the 16th round as the 392nd overall pick by New Orleans in 1973.
Listed at 5-5, 165 pounds, he was a valuable punt and kickoff returner for the Saints in 1973-1974 and with the Baltimore Colts from 1975-1977.
He averaged 9.6 yards per return on punts and 22.7 yards on kickoffs in his NFL career. His longest punt return was 53 yards, and his longest kickoff return was 83 yards – but neither was a touchdown. Some of his teammates with the Colts included quarterback Bert Jones and wide receiver Roger Carr.
Notes
- Waynesboro High School product Ricky Ray (Norfolk State) played 31 games, with 14 starts, on defense for New Orleans and Miami from 1979-1981, per footballreference.com.
- Staunton Military Academy, per footballreference.com, has had five pro players: Dave Lloyd (1959-1970) with Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia; Harvey Johnson (1946-1951) with New York; Cliff Lewis (1946-1951) with Cleveland; Al Matuza (1941-1943) with Chicago; and Harry McMahon (1926), with Hartford. Johnson played in college at William & Mary.
- Stuarts Draft product Shonn Bell (Clinch Valley) played two games at tight end with the San Francisco 49ers in 1999. He also went to high school in Germany, per footballreference.com. Bell was named the football coach at Waynesboro High School in 2024, and was coach there for one season, before resigning earlier this year, following a DUI charge.
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David Driver
