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Windsor High School’s varsity football team may have finished 1-9 this season, but the team and its players are demonstrating growth and improvement, and this was validated by the Dukes receiving 17 All-Tri-Rivers District selections for 2024.

The selections were determined by the votes of coaches from around the district.

Leading the way among those 17 selections were two first-team honorees — junior Jeremy King, who was selected as an offensive all-purpose player, and senior Fleetwood Turner, who was selected at wide receiver.

Windsor players making the all-district second team included King, at defensive back; junior Jeremiah Newby, on the offensive line; junior Gavin Marshall, at punter; and junior Hudson Williams, at linebacker.

Dukes receiving all-district honorable mention included King, at quarterback; junior Logan Powell, at both running back and linebacker; Turner, at kick returner; sophomore Wesley May, on both the offensive and defensive lines; Marshall, at center; sophomore Peyton Fowler, on the defensive line; Newby, on the defensive line; and Williams, as both a tight end and as a defensive all-purpose player.

Windsor Head Coach Benjamin DuBois, who has just completed his second season leading the team, shared the reaction to its overall all-district representation this year.

“The kids were excited, and so were some parents,” he said. “Some still have not grasped the understanding that they are/have gotten better, and it is not being acknowledged. I still feel they still see themselves as overlooked and underrated. 

“This year we ended up being very young, with only one senior for 10 games and two others who played near the end of the year,” he continued. “This allowed us to play a lot of underclassmen, as we were also dealing with the injury bug and some other issues. 

“This year’s record does not define us, and we showed a lot of the kids and opponents that we are getting better as a team,” he continued. “We were competitive in every game this year and even surprised some teams by just how much. Windsor was always someone’s homecoming game, and this year we saw less of that.”

During the regular season, the clock is allowed to run out with little to no stoppages in a game when one team is leading the other by a significant amount.

“Windsor had eight games where we had running clocks against us in 2022, five games in 2023 and zero in 2024,” DuBois said. “In most games we were either close or leading at halftime, and that’s a giant step forward for the Dukes.”

A Windsor player has earned the all-district offensive all-purpose player honor at either the first- or second-team level for the past three years. King, like his brother Jamari King before him, earned this recognition on the first team.

“Jeremy is a good, solid athlete, and he was so excited to receive this honor,” DuBois said. “He is just starting to realize the potential that he has in this great game. Coaches know that he carried the majority of the workload for us this year, and this (offensive all-purpose player) is an honor that we are hoping to continue to carry, as Isaiah Seaborne (2022), Jamari King (2023) and now Jeremy King (2024) have carried this award.”

The coach said Jeremy’s statistics this year were ranked among the best in the Tidewater area; King’s numbers included 778 yards and five touchdowns passing and 1,055 yards and seven touchdowns rushing.

Turner, who wears No. 10 for the Dukes, also had outstanding stats, which helped him make the first team as a wide receiver. He finished with 563 yards and two touchdowns receiving. He also gained 263 yards as a kick returner and scored a rushing touchdown.

“So one of the things that we have done has been to include our stats with 757Teamz so our kids see that they are competitive with other players around the area,” DuBois said. “Fleetwood knew his stats were with some of the top guys in the area but still for some reason did not realize he was among the leaders in our district for receiving. Coaches were specific in the meeting when recognizing No. 10 and how fast he was, as well as knowing that we were going to find a way to get him the ball.”

Reflecting on the second-team selections that Windsor drew, DuBois said, “I felt a few of these guys should have been first teamers, but the coaches in our district have good players as well, and it comes down to everyone’s opinions at that point. Although they did not make the first team, they are happy to be recognized, and I hope this inspires them to work harder during the offseason and improve even more in 2025.”