Jamorie Brooks is looking for a chance to be an ultimate Cavalier in 2016. He spent his first two years at Bethel High School (Vallejo, California) on the JV squad. He now has the chance to start fresh in more ways than one.
In 2016, he’s in the starting rotation for the Junipero Serra varsity football team and wants to be an integral part of the Cavaliers secondary.
His love for football has always been there. His father is a high school football coach so with Brooks playing the sport ever since the age of seven, it was a constant ever since.
“I would say I played flag football. Being the best athlete on the field, they had me playing quarterback. This was at the age of five. I didn’t know anything about football. At the age of five, I was playing quarterback and me being the best athlete on the field, they used to always say I scored touchdowns,” he said. “My first year of pop warner, I played. Usually, first-year kids, bench players or NPR players don’t really play that much but in pop warner, I played a lot. I was actually the starting running back my first year so I fell in love with it after that.”
It was his father who instilled honesty, football, family and religious values in him. His mother’s sacrifice helped as well. A football role model, if you will, for Jamorie Brooks is current Buffalo Bills and former USC Trojans running back Reggie Bush.
“Actually the reason why I play football, a role model for me I guess I could say is Reggie Bush. … He’s the guy I look up to.”
The Vallejo, California native now living in Gardena, California is a junior cornerback at Junipero Serra High School. He transferred there after playing for Bethel High School/Vallejo, California his first two years of high school.
He played quarterback there and was very good by the looks of his film. He had arm strength and accuracy, could move on the run in the option game and scrambling out of the pocket among other things. He also struggled in dealing with things like friends and teammates moving up to Varsity while he stayed on JV having to lead and play with a fairly new team at quarterback in addition to football almost being taken away from him because of grades.
“Football-wise, I’d have to say an injury. My 10th-grade year, it was a hard year for me because all of my friends had gotten moved up to Varsity and my coach wanted to build me into a quarterback but he didn’t want me on varsity so I was on JV practically by myself really with no friends. Playing with a new team and having to be the leader of the team [was an adjustment],” he said. “Life wise, one time, I [had] bad grades and my dad wouldn’t [let me] play anymore. He was thinking about taking football from me and [I had] to overcome that because [football] is what I go to most. That’s my stress reliever and that being cut away from me, was hard to overcome.”
Brooks currently has no scholarship offers but is talking to schools. He has high interest in USC, Washington State, Miami, and LSU, because of their proficiency in developing defensive backs for the NFL. He had 17 tackles in 2015. See his sophomore highlights here.
Outside of football, Jamorie Brooks wants to study sports medicine and he likes the production side of music.
On the field, Jamorie Brooks has speed which will help him as a cornerback moving forward. With more playing time, he could see more offers, interest, and stats come his way. Here are the things he says he will bring to a university and football program.
“On the field, I’m going to bring you intensity, character, very good character. I’m going to bring you something you won’t get out [of] just any other player. Off the field, I’m going to bring you a good human being, a good person. I’m going to do what I can for your university to make your university look good.”
He likens his game to Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Marcus Peters, Los Angeles Rams defensive back Trumaine Johnson and his good friend and old Serra teammate Adoree Jackson who plays for USC.
“The best part of my game is I would have to say my ball skills, how I attack the ball and my coverage skills. I’m not the fastest guy but I’m going to stay with the wide receiver the whole game so that’s what I feel is the best part of my game,” Brooks said.
When his time is all said and done at Junipero Serra, he wants to be remembered as the ultimate cavalier.
“[What I’ll] miss the most is the coaches. I think we have the best high school coaches in the nation. I’m going to miss my teammates of course. I have the best teammates in the nation, I feel. The mark I want to leave there is being a Cavalier, that’s our mascot. That’s a code we follow. The mark I want to leave there is being a Cavalier, having faith and integrity, being a responsible leader, being all of that. Being the ultimate Cavalier.”