Inactive? Oh, no. He was among the most active guys out there.

He kept shifting his weight from one foot to the other, nerves his puppeteer. Every big defensive stop by George Wythe would cause Jordan Atwood to pump his fist — the one that wasn’t immobilized, anyway — and consider jumping for joy, until he remembered that his right knee wouldn’t appreciate that.

The heart and soul of this Maroons defense for much of his career, Atwood watched the final football game of his life from the same spot he’d watched the previous 11: the sidelines.

But if you ask the Maroons, he was just as instrumental to his team’s 17-10 victory over Honaker in the VHSL Group A Division I title game as anybody on the field.

To read the whole column, click here.