Countryside’s Jaden Griffin running away from the competition
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Ever since the school was founded in 1980, Countryside High School has been drawing athletes from the surrounding cities of Dunedin, Safety Harbor and Clearwater. This has allowed them to put some pretty impressive football teams together throughout the years. While 2021 wasn’t a great year overall for the Cougars, it was a big one for senior running back Jaden Griffin.
Throughout his career, Griffin struggled to find his way in the Cougar offense. As a result, his production went up and down during his freshman, sophomore and junior seasons. He actually received less attention in his junior season than he did his sophomore season.
In that sophomore campaign for Griffin and the Cougars, Griffin played in all 10 games for Countryside. He accounted for 64 carries, going for 417 yards and five touchdowns. It appeared that Griffin would take over the role of starting running back going into his junior season. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, Griffin only played in six games and carried the ball six times for a loss of one yard in his junior season.
He did manage to contribute some offense on the receiving side of things, however, and tallied five catches for 179 yards and a touchdown. He averaged an incredible 35.8 yards per reception. Overall, however, it was a disappointing junior season for the running back. However, Griffin wouldn’t be deterred or dismayed.
Returning for his senior season at Countryside High School, Griffin worked his tail off and became a machine at running back. Standing at 5-foot-10 and weighing in at 185 pounds, Griffin had the build and bulk perfect for a running back. However, he wanted to play both ends of the football and ended up starting at free safety in his senior season to go along with his position as starting running back.
Incredibly, Griffin went from not playing safety at all in his junior season and garnering only a handful of snaps to being a full-time starter at both positions just a year later. Griffin ran the ball 173 times for a total of 1,498 yards and 18 touchdowns as a senior, averaging 8.7 yards per carry. He had six 100+ yard rushing games, 19 total touchdowns and over 1,500 total yards on offense.
He was no slouch on defense either, and was among the team leaders with 87 total tackles to go along with an interception, a forced fumble and a recovered fumble. There are few high school athletes that made a leap as big as the one made by Griffin between his junior and senior years.
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