Free Muck City by Bryan Mealer

13–17, one year winning only a single game.
    In Jessie’s sophomore year, under new coach Ben McCoy, the Raiders finally had the semblance of a championship squad. Led by Hester and running backs Johnny Rowe and Greg Bain, the Raiders put up their first winning season before scandal plagued them again. The state athletics board determined that Rowe, whose father was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany, hadn’t lived with his grandmother in Belle Glade longer than a calendar year, which was the required period of residency to play sports. The team was forced to forfeit two games, one of which was a victory over a division rival, which pushed them out of the playoffs.
    In Jessie’s junior year, the Raiders advanced to their third state championship game, this time against Milton High School, whose team was bigger, faster, and in much better health. Under the lights of Booster Stadium in Ocala, the Panthers drubbed Glades Central in a 35–6 rout. Hester scored the Raiders’ only touchdown.
    By his senior year, Jet had come into his own, well known for his blazing acrobatics and out-of-nowhere catches as both a receiver and a banditsafety. We see him in the pages of the
Belle Glade Herald
, midflight up the open lane, with a caption that reads, “Speedy Alka-Seltzer didn’t have anything on Glades Central Raider Jessie Hester on Friday night.”
    He’d grown up hearing the stories of the fabled ’71 and ’72 teams, championship squads who, despite the racial division and hatred all around them, had bonded as a team and a family and found a way to win. Those stories had inspired Jessie. And now, in his senior year, it was his last chance to experience it himself. With Jessie nominated for All-American, the Raiders advanced to the semifinals, where ironically they came face-to-face with Titusville High, coached by Al Werneke. The game was held in Belle Glade. The Terriers were blessed with a hulking defensive line and Werneke’s unshakable coaching. All night they blitzed Raider quarterback Leonard Camel relentlessly, while shutting down Hester with double coverage.
    With seconds left on the clock, the Raiders found themselves down by five points. There was time for one final play. Having been smothered most of the night, Hester had mainly run decoy for his friend and fellow wideout Ray McDonald. Now, with the game and his Raider legacy in jeopardy, Jet drew up the last play with Camel.
    “Leonard,” he told him, “they don’t expect me. So as soon as you get the ball, buy some time. I’m going straight to the post. Just hang it up.”
    Camel snapped the ball and scrambled, giving Jet a few precious seconds, then cocked back to throw. But the ball never left his hands. He was hit from behind and went down in a heap as the clock hammered zero. In Hester’s final game as a Raider, he stood alone in the end zone, having never brought home a ring.
    •   •   •
    IN JESSIE’S QUEST for a title, Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles seemed the best possible option. After the appearance in the championship game the previous year, the Raiders had begun attracting the attention of collegescouts. They’d mainly come to Belle Glade to see Greg Bain, who by then was running over defenses in South Florida like John Henry through the mountain, sometimes scoring half a dozen touchdowns a game. Bain was Big Time, bigger than Wayne Stanley, Anthony Williams, Newman, all of those boys combined. When the scouts had come looking for Bain, they’d also seen Hester. But sadly for Bain, he’d snapped his ankle senior year in a playoff game against Fort Pierce Westwood. That same night, Hester put up five TDs and the scouts didn’t have to waste a trip.
    Hester would later describe the recruiting process that followed as “a nightmare.” For a person who’d always moved to the back of the picture, who savored privacy and sought to keep his family’s problems out of public view, the experience was debilitating.
    “There would be guys