Walking through the Capitol Hilton earlier this week for the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ winter meeting, Mayor Vince Gray was talking football. Specifically, the team at his alma mater, Dunbar High School.
Gray’s got reason to gloat, though, with five Dunbar alumni in the NFL right now. Of those players, it’s Vernon Davis who’s getting the most attention these days. Davis, a tight end with the San Francisco 49ers, is one of the best in the league at his position. Last Sunday, in an NFC Divisional game against the New Orleans Saints, Davis exploded for 180 receiving yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning score that came with just 31 seconds left in the 49ers’ 36-32 win.
To Davis’ coach at Dunbar, Craig Jeffries, the performance was old hat.
“Great kid,” says Jeffries, who coached Dunbar from 1996 to 2010 before becoming the receivers coach at the University of New Mexico. “First time he walked in the door … he had all the physical tools you look for.”
As a senior in 2002, Davis hauled in 21 catches for 511 yards and five touchdowns, earning him a spot on the Post’s All-Met Team and a place in the U.S. Army High School All-American Bowl. He went on to the University of Maryland, where he started as a true freshman. The 49ers selected Davis as the sixth pick overall in the 2006 NFL Draft.
Jeffries chalks up a lot of his former player’s success to others, especially Davis’ grandmother. Adaline Davis instilled in her grandson discipline and a work ethic “that made my job easier,” Jeffries says. “She should get the brunt of the credit.”
Still, he takes his share of the credit—not just for Vernon Davis, but for the four other Dunbar alumni currently in the NFL: Davis’ younger brother Vontae, a cornerback for the Miami Dolphins; Cleveland Browns wide receiver Joshua Cribbs; Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Arrelious Benn; and Saints linebacker Nate Bussey.
“I would like to take a ton of the credit, but all of those kids were from great families,” Jeffries says. “I made sure those guys stayed out of trouble and stayed on top of the fundamentals. They were good people and they’d want to stick around and do extra drills. We developed them spiritually, physically and academically. That’s the common denominator—they were driven.”
But for the other four, the season is over. Vernon Davis and the 49ers play this Sunday against the New York Giants in the NFC Championship game. And as a fan of the boys in blue, I ask Jeffries if I should be worried about Davis torching the Giants’ secondary.
“Absolutely,” Jeffries says, mentioning Davis was on two D.C. championship-winning teams in high school and the Terrapin squad that crushed West Virginia in the 2004 Gator Bowl. “He’s driven and wants to win, and with that in mind, the Giants should know where he is.”
When the 49ers beat the Giants in the regular season on November 13, Davis caught three passes, one of which was a 31-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter that gave San Francisco the lead.
Jeffries, speaking from his home in Upper Marlboro, thinks the 49ers will win again and expects Davis to play his usual role as a key part of the San Francisco offense, both in catching passes and blocking on other plays.
“He’s under appreciated as a blocker,” Jeffries says.
Locals have other reasons to pull for the 49ers on Sunday besides Davis and the NFC East rivalry between the Giants and the Redskins. Besides Davis, San Francisco also has on its roster wide receiver Josh Morgan, who went to H.D. Woodson High School, and linebacker NaVorro Bowman, who grew up in District Heights, Md. and played at Suitland High School.
“If you can’t root for the Redskins,” Jeffries says, “root for the D.C. kids.”
