Fort Hill's Jabril Daniels wins area Player of the Year

Dec. 23, 2024
by Alex Rychwalski

CUMBERLAND — After producing one of the best offensive seasons in local history in 2023, Jabril Daniels outdid himself in his senior campaign.

The Fort Hill back delivered the area’s eighth 2,000-yard rushing season and tied the city touchdown record again with 34 scores. Daniels was also a true two-way standout, racking up 106 tackles as a linebacker.

Daniels shared the Offensive Player of the Year last year, but he did one better in 2024, as the area’s head coaches selected him as Player of the Year.

“It’s an excellent honor for a kid who has been as consistent as he has been for the last two-and-a-half, three years,” Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire said.

“Great kid who has an awesome personality. Great work ethic. Works hard in the classroom. Everything you want in a student-athlete. As great as he is on the field, he’s even better off the field.”

The area football awards were chosen at a meeting of the area’s head coaches last Monday.

State champions Frankfort and Fort Hill split the honors.

Frankfort’s Jullian Pattison won the Morton W. Peskin Sr. Memorial Offensive Player of the Year, Daniel Marley was named John B. “Jack” Gilmore Memorial Lineman of the Year and Kevin Whiteman took home Coach of the Year.

Fort Hill’s Nick Willison, the area’s leading tackler, was named Pepsi-Cola Defensive Player of the Year on Friday.

Daniels is Fort Hill’s third Player of the Year in the last four years and 12th in the last 15. A Sentinel has either won or shared the honor 22 times since the award was established in 1973.

Daniels received six votes, and Pattison nabbed the other.

The senior backed up a record-setting junior season by carrying the ball 230 times for 2,276 yards and 33 touchdowns this year. He added a fumble return for a score to match his total TD mark of 2023.

Daniels edged Josh Page’s 2,274 rushing yards in 1996 to set a Fort Hill record. It’s the most rushing yards ever by a player from Allegany, Mineral, Garrett or Hampshire counties.

The only local player to ever rush for more yards in a season was Moorefield’s Wil Schoonover, who gained 2,530 yards in 2015 and went on to play at West Virginia University.

Daniels set a new area record with 80 total touchdowns, besting Page’s 71, and his 4,694 career rushing yards trail only Page (4,987) and Frankfort’s Travis Lynch (4,849).

“That goes back a long long time, so I’m not going to say he’s the greatest of all time,” Alkrie said. “But he is most certainly in the conversation for being one of the greatest of all time at Fort Hill.

“Coming into Fort Hill, he drew comparisons to Josh Page, who in his own right had a very stellar career. The fact that he was able to match and exceed what Josh was able to do (statistically), it goes a long to explain just how special Jabril is.”

Daniel’s touchdown total is the ninth most in Maryland public school football history, and his career yardage mark is 20th all-time.

As a junior, Daniels had 190 carries for 1,826 yards and scored 34 total TDs rushing behind one of Fort Hill’s greatest offensive lines en route to a 13-0 season and a state championship.

This year, Daniels got off to a slow start running behind a young and inexperienced line that featured three sophomores and two juniors.

“He obviously had a great season last year,” Alkire said. “This year, while it came a little tougher to him, I’d argue it was just better for him overall. Having to be the senior who is basically running behind a brand-new group of kids. There’s obviously going to be growing pains with that group.

“None of them had any real varsity experience. It was going to take time for them to come together. Jabril had really high expectations coming into the year, and he had to help them bring their game up as well.

“He was able to do that, and it wasn’t just during games. It was at practice, in team training classes. It was the whole nine yards.”

After a 28-7 loss to Briar Woods in which Daniels rushed for a season-low 61 yards on 19 carries, the senior closed the year with nine consecutive 100-yard games.

Daniels gained 1,645 yards on the ground and scored 27 touchdowns over that span, an average of 182.8 yards per game.

This came despite suffering an injury against Mountain Ridge to begin that stretch on Oct. 11.

Daniels left the game with an apparent wrist injury in an ambulance and returned before the night was over to rush for 172 yards and two scores on just 10 carries.

“He had to wear a protective brace for a few weeks, and he didn’t shy away from contact, even after that injury,” Alkire said. “He wanted to be in the position defensively to make plays. He would cover people.”

Daniels established himself as a big hitter defensively, playing a variety of roles as an outside linebacker, inside linebacker, cornerback or safety depending on what Fort Hill needed.

His versatility was on full display in a 24-21 triumph at Perryville in the semifinals.

Jayden Byard torched the Sentinels with 120 yards in the first half, scoring an 80-yard TD and setting up another. Daniels asked to cover him at halftime, and the senior held the speedster without a reception.

“He’s a kid who you’re able to really design both offense and defense around,” Alkire said. “I know he gets a lot of the publicity offensively, but defensively we were able to put him in multiple positions throughout the year. ... He played them all fabulously.”

Daniels finished with 106 tackles (55 solo), 11 tackles for loss, two sacks and a strip sack he recovered himself and ran in for a touchdown against Northern in the opener.

In his second game against the Huskies, Daniels racked up 249 yards and three touchdowns on 21 rushes in a 35-0 victory in the Class 1A state championship game — the Sentinels’ record-tying fourth in a row.

The football future for Daniels, who originally hails from Baltimore along with his twin brother Gamil Daniels, is still undecided. Daniels holds Division 1 offers from Southern Utah and Morgan State and one from Frostburg State.

No matter the position he plays at the college level or where he lands, Daniels will be giving his new school a football player above all else.

He was the area’s best this year, and he’ll go down one of the all-time greats to come through the city of Cumberland.

“He’s extremely versatile,” Alkire said. “When college coaches come in, you have some colleges that want to see him on the offensive side of the ball, some coaches that want to see him on the defensive side of the ball.

“Sure, that goes with what they need, but it also shows what quality of a player Jabril is. There’s not one quality of his game that everyone just oozes about. They ooze about all of it.”