The 6'3 225 lbs Essex freshman picked up his first D1 offer from Maryland. This will be the first of many for this young man
Demetrius Stewart Essex Class of 2028
- Thread starter kwhs95fan
- Start date
Wrote about Demetrius in an article back in February
https://virginiapreps.rivals.com/news/prospect-watch-essex
https://virginiapreps.rivals.com/news/prospect-watch-essex
Congrats to Steward again….I saw on FB yesterday 4-22-25, that he got an offer from Virginia Tech as well.
Holy smokes. Kid's a beast. Crazy the amount of talent that comes out of that area.
2 more to look out for in Tappahannock.
6’5 280 Gayron Few
6’3 260 Isiah Johnson
Both in this freshmen class with Demetrius Stewart. Todd Jones is cooking up greatness in Tapp Town.
6’5 280 Gayron Few
6’3 260 Isiah Johnson
Both in this freshmen class with Demetrius Stewart. Todd Jones is cooking up greatness in Tapp Town.
Slight correction on their size. Gayron is my cousin, so I know he’s not 6’5” 280. According to the roster in the online VHSL state mag, he’s 6’0” 250lbs. From what I was told, he has been contacted by a few schools.
Isiah Johnson is 5’9” 255lbs according to the VHSL online mag. Those sizes could change in the next 3 seasons for them…. being that they are young.
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Not being smart but have you seen him lately bro? The young man is taller than me and I’m 6’2! Isiah is about my height or a little taller too. Those kids are going places.
No worries, I’m not taking it as being smart 😁. I saw Gayron about a week ago. He was with my niece helping her and my sister set up for an event at Essex High. Didn’t look 6’5”. But I’m going to reach out to him to get his height and weight. He was telling me that he was going to the Jr. Day at Varina this Sunday
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Guess we both were sort of right. lol. I asked his mom and she said he is 6’2” 280lbs with a 3.2 GPA
Good question!!!! Essex lost 13-14 to graduation. But they still have most of their core players. Still will have Bundy, Holmes & Steward at RB along with an O line featuring three 330 pounders sprinkled with a few others 255, 270 and 280 pounders. The 2 TE’s 6’4” 210 & 6’4” 225 are gone along with Hence the QB who took over the spot when Bundy got injured early in the season. The run game should still be productive. The D took a hit but still should be enough along with replacement.
I would say Essex should be the same for now but they have some jv boys that could make them better if they can step up.
With that said, Rappahannock will darn near be bringing back most of their team and can’t forget that Riverheads will be back in Class 1.
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The Essex Defense was incredible. Don't know how they started the season or what they did mid season, but I know what I saw in Salem at the end of the season. Other than Graham, that Essex defense was the best defense I saw last year in Class 1 or Class 2. Strasburg, Poquoson and Union were right there with Essex defensively, but Essex was just as good or maybe better as those 3 defensively by seasons end.
ESSEX 2024 POINT TOTAL IN 10 REGULAR SEASON GAMES:
Points Scored: 609 (46 per game)
Points Allowed: 55 (4.2 per game)
PLAYOFF POINT TOTAL IN 5 Games:
Points Scored: 229 (45.8 per game)
Points Allowed: 8 (1.6 per game)
TOTAL POINTS SCORED IN 15 GAMES:
838 points (55.8 per game)
TOTAL POINTS ALLOWED IN 15 GAMES:
63 points (4.2 per game)
MOST POINTS SCORED IN A GAME:
70-0 vs Charles City
MOST POINTS ALLOWED IN A GAME:
20-14 win vs Westmorland
LEAST AMOUNT OF POINTS SCORE:
13-8 L to Rappahannock during regular season
4 regular season shutouts
4 reg. season games allowing single digit scores (most scores came vs subs in 3rd or 4th Q)
2 reg. season games allowing double digit score vs Rappahannock 13-8 L and Westmoreland 20-14 win
4 playoff shutouts and 1 playoff game allowing one score 30-8 win vs Altavista
Gayron is an awesome young man. He’s going places in life. All of these young men in Todd Jones’ program are high quality young men. Just don’t find that everywhere.
They had a lot of injuries early on. All State guys Zay Bundy and Jaden Holmes missed multiple games and we know that can make or break you in C1 and C2. If they can stay healthy, Essex will be way better than last year, which is scary.
I said it on the C4 thread (and I truly believe it), they’d beat some of the good bigger schools in the Richmond Metro area.
A couple more freshman in that program to keep a watch for.
LB Tim Walker
Safety Mar’Keise Braxton
Very good players and started as freshmen. Very rare does a team start 6 freshman and win a state championship. Essex has the best collection of young talent in the entire 804 as of now IMO. Would love to see Essex play Dinwiddie or Salem.
LB Tim Walker
Safety Mar’Keise Braxton
Very good players and started as freshmen. Very rare does a team start 6 freshman and win a state championship. Essex has the best collection of young talent in the entire 804 as of now IMO. Would love to see Essex play Dinwiddie or Salem.
6 Freshman Started? I don't recall that from the roster I saw at Salem but maybe I missed something. If my memory serves me correct it was 2 freshman starting. Now what Dinwiddie team are we talking about? You guys are starting to get out of hand with how good these freshman are. Essex couldn't get over the Riverheads hump now all of a sudden you want them to play one of the top teams in 4A? Riverheads went to 2A and couldn't win a state title now their back in 1A and ready to take their crown back from Essex
Demetrius Stewart, Gayron Few, Isiah Johnson, Tim Walker, and Keise Braxton. My bad, only 5. You have to remember, Essex dealt with a lot of injuries but was healthy by playoffs so some of these kids didn’t start in Salem.
My statement above is I’d like to see Essex play Dinwiddie or Salem. Don’t know what’s “out of hand” about that. Feel like Essex would match up really well with both teams. What does them losing to Riverheads THREE years ago have to do with anything? You don’t have to answer, just think that’s ridiculous to bring up when we’re talking presently.
No way they would have kept Dinwiddie under 50 last year. Riverheads team last year was no where near as talented or big as the last several years. Just my opinion. Talent at Essex and Altavista is pretty remarkable for small schools from what I have seen.
It's very easy to pull up games on NFHS Network and look at the Essex roster to see what players started/played. I get hyping a team up but as I stated earlier, I didn't see 6 freshman starting. 2 max and those other that you name may have played when game was out of hand. I reached out to a couple of folks I know from Tappahannock area and they said Essex is the Freedom/Hayfield of 1A ball. Glad to see them finally get over the hump!
Bro you being weird… I’m not even an Essex fan nor am I from there. Just making a statement that those kids are young and started at one point this year. Again, I’d love to see them play one of the two better programs in C4. This is a C1 school that has C3 numbers that come out for their team. I’m not telling you any hearsay, I talk to Todd Jones and know these kids.
Winning does a lot for "recruiting." The old chicken or the egg argument doesn't apply here in most cases of HS Ball. In HS for the overwhelming majority of the time, the Chicken comes first and produces the eggs. Meaning, you have a HS Coach that is doing very well and winning and kids want to play for him because he's winning, and now the kids coming lead to more winning and it gets called recruiting, when in reality, it was and still is good coaching.
Do you see many kids transferring to East Montgomery or John Battle for football? No. It's because they aren't winning. Some kids from East Montgomery have transferred to Auburn over the years because of Auburns winning sports programs (minus football). I don't think that's recruiting. Jones can coach (he's not an offensive guru by any stretch) but he can flat out lead, develop players, and coach, and kids see that. It's infectious. I've read on the other board about Lee High located in Lee County having many transfers over to Union. I don't think Unions coach Turner is an "avid recruiter." What he is.....is a solid HS Coach at a winning Class 2 program and if you are in the Eastern part of Lee County and close to Big Stone Gap and you have D1 or D2 looks, what would common sense say? Common sense will say....."I need to at least give Union a look." Let Lee High run off 3 seasons where they go 9 and 1, 10-0, 10-0, and Union likely gets far fewer looks.
There's a reason 5 star recruits over the years choose Notre Dame over Central Michigan. One of those wins a lot. The other doesnt.
Do you see many kids transferring to East Montgomery or John Battle for football? No. It's because they aren't winning. Some kids from East Montgomery have transferred to Auburn over the years because of Auburns winning sports programs (minus football). I don't think that's recruiting. Jones can coach (he's not an offensive guru by any stretch) but he can flat out lead, develop players, and coach, and kids see that. It's infectious. I've read on the other board about Lee High located in Lee County having many transfers over to Union. I don't think Unions coach Turner is an "avid recruiter." What he is.....is a solid HS Coach at a winning Class 2 program and if you are in the Eastern part of Lee County and close to Big Stone Gap and you have D1 or D2 looks, what would common sense say? Common sense will say....."I need to at least give Union a look." Let Lee High run off 3 seasons where they go 9 and 1, 10-0, 10-0, and Union likely gets far fewer looks.
There's a reason 5 star recruits over the years choose Notre Dame over Central Michigan. One of those wins a lot. The other doesnt.
Overton built a solid program and became a perennial powerhouse where ppl expect his team to compete for championships every year. I didn't think he recruited, I thought players just wanted to play for Overton wherever he coached so the parents took the kids. So its recruiting when it's Overton but when its someone that doesn't look like him its "a HS Coach that is doing very well and winning and kids want to play for him because he's winning, and now the kids coming lead to more winning". Let me get off this board because I never mentioned anything about recruiting yet that is brought up. Makes the brain wonder tho!
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