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T.J. Dozier is the quintessential definition of a student-athlete. As a football player, he’s a well-rounded athlete, but most importantly, he’s an intellect student in the classroom who garners the attention of Ivy League schools.
His keen demeanor has translated onto the football field as the Georgetown Prep two-way starter eyes his latest quest of upsetting Gonzaga in the Jesuit Gridiron Classic on Saturday afternoon.
“For us, it’s all in the mind,” Dozier said, the senior captain. “My job, along with the other captains, is to lead this team, not just by words, but leading by example and showing that everyone has a role to play. I want to show if you work hard, you focus on what you can control, if you do all that, then great things will happen.”
Nearly 365 days ago, Dozier can pinpoint the reason behind Georgetown Prep’s 28-0 loss to Gonzaga. He’ll repeatedly say it was a lack of focus and a carelessness use of preparation time. Dozier is not having any of that this time around and will march his Hoyas into Saturday’s rivalry contest hoping to lead Georgetown Prep to its first win over Gonzaga since 2011.
“The last couple of years, they’ve had the upper hand,” Dozier said of Gonzaga. “I felt like last year we had a great chance to win it, but the problem is, we got too emotionally invested because of the stakes of the game, how high pressure the game was.”
Dozier, a running back and cornerback who started playing football in eighth grade, is receiving college interest from Butler, Dartmouth, Harvard, Lehigh and Princeton. A large reason for his football uproar is his upbringing, where academics is what Dozier termed “number one” in his household. His mother graduated from Georgetown University with multiple degrees, aspiring the senior utility playmaker to take the most challenging courses offered at Georgetown Prep.
This week, Dozier has caught himself when he’s surfing social media when he could rather be preparing for an upset he’s always fantasized of.
“We try not to get too caught up in that,” Dozier said of his social media usage. “To play in a big game, that’s something that me and a lot of my teammates wanted ever since we were little. Just to play on a big stage. … As a football player, you look for those big moments.”
Dozier said the preparation for this week’s game billed as the Jesuit Gridiron Classic has gone just as planned, and expects to have a “favorable result” on Saturday if the Hoyas execute. On top of the rivalry, all ticket sales and revenue generated will go to the Washington Jesuit Academy, a tuition-free middle school in the District of Columbia.
“We’re not over-hyping it,” Dozier said. “We’re doing a much better job staying focused throughout this whole week.”
Both institutions are two of the oldest in the nation. Georgetown Prep opened in 1789 and Gonzaga College High launched in 1821. While Gonzaga has dominated this match-up traditionally, Dozier feels good about his team’s chances on Saturday.
“I don’t want to discount Gonzaga at all because they’re one of the best teams in the area and even in the country, but I feel like we have a good chance of winning on Saturday, a much better chance than we’ve had in a very long time,” Dozier said. “I believe it’s going to be a very close game all the down to the wire. I have faith in my team.”
As of the 4:00 PM hour on Friday night, the fans have voted 55 percent in favor Gonzaga to come away victorious over Georgetown. Kickoff is at 1:00 PM on Saturday afternoon at Georgetown Prep.
“This year, we want it just as bad, but we’re making sure that we stay emotionally calm,” Dozier said. “We want this bad. It would be huge for the program to get this win.”
