But more than those gaudy numbers that earned him Wendy’s Middletown Player of the Game honors, what mattered most to the senior was the scoreboard Friday night at Barnitz Stadium.
Middletown 28, Troy 20.
“I just want to win,” Ward, a dual-threat signal caller, said while sitting in the athletic office. “There are always things I can improve on like better ball placement and better reads. There are times I could have scored if I read the block correctly.”
His coach, Kali Jones, who was named the Middies coach before last season after five seasons at Withrow High School, praised Ward for his dedication following his junior season.
“He has really buckled down in the offseason and worked his tail off,” Jones said.
Days after Middletown’s 2024 season ended with a loss to Wayne, Ward and several teammates started training for their senior seasons.
“It feels good to know that your hard work didn’t go to waste,” he said. “I wasn’t really nervous because we have been working very hard this offseason.“
Ward suffered a stress fracture in his back his sophomore season at Withrow. Last season, he played halfback, tight end and wide receiver for the Middies.
Jones called Ward, a 6-2, 215-pounder with bushy hair, “a phenomenal athlete.”
This year Ward was handed the keys to the Middies offense that produced more than 400 yards in the opener, but committed three fumbles that kept Troy in the game, Jones said.
Jones was pleased with the win, but wants the offense to clean-up the turnovers. During walk-throughs the day before a game, the Middies hold what Jones calls Perfect Practice Thursday (PPT).
No football should hit the ground.
“That’s the expectation, that’s the standard,“ he said.
For Ward, the goal is for the team to improve every week. The wins will continue if that happens, he said.
“After you get better, you know you can beat teams,” he said.
Jones wants his team to win the league and that starts by “capitalizing on opportunities and taking the next step up.”
Jones coached Woodward to a 6-14 record in two seasons before taking the Withrow head coaching job in 2019. Withrow reached the Division II playoffs each of the last four seasons and went 33-21 in five years under Jones’ leadership.
He hopes Ward and the other leaders can continue turning around a once-proud Middletown program that has suffered for numerous seasons.
Ward said his parents started calling him “JoJo” as a young boy. The nickname stuck, and then his mother, Reathanak, and father, LaMarque, started calling him “Jo Easy.”
His father played basketball at Fairleigh Dickinson University, then professionally in the ABA and overseas.
The youngest of six children, Ward hopes to play football at the University of Utah, but if that doesn’t materialize, he’ll play anywhere.
“I just want to play ball at the next level,“ he said.
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The Journal-News will profile a local high school athlete on Fridays. If you have a suggestion, please forward the athlete’s name and high school to Rick McCrabb at rmccrabb1@gmail.com.
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