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Jared Curtis never forgot what it felt like to raise a silver ball instead of a gold one.
The memory of losing to Friendship Christian in the Division II-A championship his freshman season is something that motivated him each of the last two seasons.
Thursday night Curtis and the Eagles got that championship monkey off of their back beating Columbia Academy 49-21 for the DII-A title and their first state championship since 2015.
“This means a lot,” Curtis said. “We’ve been working our whole high school careers for this moment. It’s not over yet though.
…I haven’t graduated yet so we need to go into the offseason, get back to work and bring back another one.”
Curtis has been in the spotlight since his freshman year. Ranked as one of the best 2026 recruits in the country, he’s maintained that ranking for the last three seasons.
This season in particular has seen the spotlight only get brighter on Curtis. He decommitted from Georgia in October during a junior season that’s seen him play his best high school ball.
In the run up to the gold ball he led the Eagles to 12 wins, was named a Mr. Football finalist and had the eyes of the state on him when the Eagles came back to Finley Stadium.
Curtis never crumbled though.
When Columbia Academy scored late in the first half to send the game to the break tied at 14, Curtis instead came out and took control himself.
He scored on Nashville Christian’s first drive of the half. That was followed up by three fourth quarter scoring drives, two of which he accounted for.
“Jared works really hard and for someone like him to have talent is one thing, come but to work as hard as he does is something else,” Nashville Christian coach Jeff Brothers said. “He’s a remarkable young man who’s only gotten better and matured the last two years. The fact that he had so much success early, he’s already experienced a lot of ups and downs.
…now a junior, his maturity and poise is the evolution of the player he’s going to be going forward.”
TJ Ward adds to Eagles’ dynamic backfield
Curtis may get all of the shine and rightfully so, but it could be argued that Ward has been Nashville Christian’s best player throughout this postseason run.
The McGavock transfer missed the first nine games of the season before finally getting to play Week 10. From there he feasted.
Columbia Academy bottled him up for a majority of the first half and even forced a fumble out of him late in the second quarter that tied the game.
Ward answered those early struggles with a strong second half performance. He rushed for 184 yards in the second half to finish the night with 203 total yards.
Midway through through the third quarter, Ward put the dagger into Columbia Academy’s side with a breakaway 64-yard touchdown run.
“I knew when I came here that we were going to go to state and win it,” Ward said. “I feel like I’ve done everything already and the last thing on my bucket list was to raise that gold ball. I’m so happy to be a part of this team.”
