McDonogh 35’s 2024 Season: Aiming for the Superdome with ‘Ten-and-0’

Leave it to stellar wide receiver Jakai Anderson of McDonogh 35 to explain what the Roneagles are all about this season.

A blue-chip commitment to LSU for 2026, Anderson points to the 2024 team’s motto for clarity, a theme adopted following last season’s run to a District 10-4A championship and the Division I Select Division III state quarterfinals.

“Ten-and-0, that’s all I have to say,’’ Anderson said succinctly and confidently when asked what people should know about these Roneagles. “Just the motto. Ten-and-0. That’s it.’’

The climb kicks off Saturday when McDonogh 35 plays host to state-ranked St. Augustine at 6 p.m. at City Park’s Tad Gormley Stadium in each team’s season-opener.

It has been eight years since McDonogh 35 last defeated St. Augustine in this emotionally charged public school versus private school rivalry. Fortunately for ’35, the losses during that period were only number five given that the 2020 and 2021 games were lost to the COVID pandemic and Hurricane Ida respectively.

McDonogh 35’s last victory came in 2016 when the Roneagles pushed their winning streak in the series to two games via a 26-19 win.

“I always tell the kids that you’re going to see people come on the sidelines that you’ve probably never seen a day in your life before,’’ McDonogh 35 coach Frank Daggs, in his fifth season as the successor to the late Wayne Reese, said of the rivalry. “But, at the same time, this is one game. If you win it, it’s not the state championship. If you lose it, it’s not the state championship. You’ve just got to go out there and compete, compete hard, and make plays.’’

As cliché-ish as it may sound, Daggs said, “I emphasize one game at a time. Get all of the plusses that you need to get. If you have more plusses than minuses and play one game at a time, you’re going to win. That’s all I think about, one game at a time. We’ve got St. Aug this week. If we come up with more plusses than minuses, we should come out on top. That’s how I look at it.’’

McDonogh 35 remains in search of its first state championship football along with its first advance to the state finals. The Roneagles advanced to the state semifinals as recently as 2019 and 2016 only to fall short of grabbing the brass ring.

“As a team right now we pretty much are thinking about (reaching) the Superdome and winning as much as we can,’’ new starting quarterback Eldon Anderson, who is no relation to Jakai Anderson, said. “Coming off last year, we made it pretty far. This year we’re just pushing harder to accomplish more.’’

The Roneagles return 13 starters, including seven on defense, from an 8-4 team that earned a No. 11 seed and proceeded to defeat No. 22 L.B. Landry, 28-0, in bi-district and No. 6 St. Louis Catholic, 53-23, on the road in the regional round before falling to No. 3 Lafayette Christian, 57-21, in the Division II Select quarterfinals.

Seniors Keith Newsome and Lyndon Vallery spearhead the front four as returning starters at end and tackle respectively. Quality support behind Newsome and Vallery is expected from three other veterans senior inside linebacker Dashawn Dales and senior outside linebackers Simeon Washington and Eltoine Augustine.

Senior cornerback Jakobie Anderson, Jakai’s brother, and junior free safety Justin Ross are top-shelf veterans in the secondary.

The new defensive starters project as senior end Cane McLeod, senior tackle Suvy Lavender, junior inside linebacker Alvin Williams, and junior cornerback Johaan Anderson.

The defense has “just got to play,’’ Daggs, 24-16 overall in his first four seasons, said. “They’ve got to produce every week. They’ve got to be the ones to hold everything down until (the offense) catches up. Most of our returning starters are on defense. The offensive skills guys are new and have got to catch up to game speed.

“The defensive line should be a strong point. All of those guys played multiple (repetitions) last year. The DBs should be OK because all of them played last year. They’ve just got to be ready to play.
“With the teams we’re playing, they run a lot of RPOs (Run-Pass Option plays). So we can’t fall asleep thinking it’s going to be a running play all of the time. You’ve still got to play your assignment. I think we’ll be all right.’’

Eldon Anderson moves into the starter’s role at quarterback after serving as the program’s backup for the past two seasons behind Santana Price. Anderson is a proven play-maker, having started at free safety last season with a highlight of two interceptions and a pick-six recorded in the regional victory at St. Louis Catholic.

New starter Naaman Landry is a solid runner at tailback while Jakai Anderson has juniors Jamirin Scott and Dantrell Taylor along with sophomore Markey Moore as running mates at wide receiver.

McDonogh 35’s offensive line returns virtually intact with three seniors and a junior back to serve as the foundation. The seniors are center Lorenzo Langlois, left tackle Chase Bolton, and right tackle Latrell Smith who are joined by veteran junior Kenneth Thomas at left guard. Junior right guard Jacob Jones is the newcomer.

On special teams, Jakai Anderson returns to handle kick returns while junior Chasson Collins and/or senior Colin Porter are competing for the punter/place-kicker position. Junior Camdan Braxton is the long snapper.

“The No. 1 thing about our offense is that it’s not so much about the play, it’s all about the play-makers,’’ Daggs said. “If the play-makers can make the plays, the offense is going to keep generating and rolling. We’ve got to find a way (as coaches) to make sure they touch the ball every drive. We’ve got to be creative in that part. I think we have some players on that side of the ball that can be successful.’’

Skill players aside such as Landry and Jakai Anderson, Daggs said, “The O-line has to come to play. If they come to play, I think they’ll be all right. We have players back. But they have to understand that just because you’re back, you’ve still got to work hard because (opponents are) coming to work harder for you. So you’ve got to do the little things.’’

“McDonogh 35 is a family,’’ quarterback Eldon Anderson said. “It’s always been the legacy. It’s always something different at McDonogh 35. We want to continue the school pride. Just (this team) being together is different. It’s a different family and a different culture around here, but we’re all Roneagles.

“We are looking to our younger players to step up and play a role because we lost a lot of key guys from last year. So it’s about playing your role and not worrying about the guy playing in front of them. We just have to continue to do our job and make sure everyone focuses on doing their job. We have to continue to win and be on the same page and build a connection with one another.’’

“I think we’re going to be a hard-working team, competitive, scrappy,’’ said Jakobie Anderson, the senior cornerback and Jakai’s brother. “We’re going to fight till the end and work hard to get where we want to be at.’’

As for aspirations, Jakobie Anderson offered none other than to say, “We just believe in ourselves. We’re on the field by ourselves. It’s us versus everybody. So we just have to work as a team. We know how to keep going and keep grinding. We’re going to keep working hard.

“We’re always looking forward to making it to the state playoffs, but we’ve got to make it past these first couple of weeks first. We’ve got to continue to work hard, so we can get to be where we want to be at which is state.

“We played well last year, but we’re trying to play even better this year. We’re trying to make it all the way to (the) state (finals). We’re trying to play better this year, put more work in, and go harder at practice when it’s hot outside.

Following St. Augustine, the Roneagles face three more emotionally high-strung non-district games against Booker T. Washington, Karr, and Sophie B. Wright before playing at East Jefferson and then opening District 10-4A play against Abramson Oct. 10 in week six at Joe Brown Stadium. McDonogh 35 then faces St. James on the road before closing the regular season with three district games versus Carver, Frederick Douglass, and McMain.

“The tough competition in the beginning, playing against St. Augustine, playing against Karr, playing against Warren Easton last week (in the jamboree, a 14-7 loss), it’s going to show when it gets down to district time in the second half of the season,’’ Daggs said. “What we always learned from back in the day (from Coach Wayne Reese) is that there are three parts to the season. You have pre-district, district, and playoffs.

“You always want your pre-district to be tough so that you can go into the district (prepared) and be able to make a deep run in the playoffs. That’s how Coach Reese taught me a long time ago and that’s how I’ve always prepared. So we’re going to go out there and play football, play physical football. We’re going to try to get off the field (defensively) as much as possible, score fast if we have to and that’s it.’’

Easy peasy, correct?

Well, not exactly.

“The sky is the limit for the potential of this team,’’ Daggs states unabashedly. “As long as we work hard and do the little things right, then everything should fall in place. We play a tough schedule in the beginning, but that’s why I did it. I wanted to make sure that we can compete at a high level.

“St. Augustine, this is one of the best teams that they’ve had in a long time. All of (the players from both teams) know each other. So it’s going to be more personal with them as far as growing up with these guys and having fun and being on the same (recreational) teams back in the day.

“But as coaches, we always keep it professional. We’re just going to go out there, do our Xs and Os, and have a good time.’’

“I feel like we’re going to have a great team,’’ Jakai Anderson said. “We made a lot of mistakes (in the jamboree) against Easton on Saturday, stuff that we’ve got to put together. But we’re going to have a very competitive team.’’