To you and me, the casual football fan, this whole Lincoln High as a Class A powerhouse thing is sort of shocking. After all, the Links haven’t won a playoff game since 1992.
Still, Lincoln High football rose to elite status last fall, winning eight games and making the playoffs for a second straight season, something that hadn’t been done since 1998-99. Something else that’s not been done, probably ever, is the program having a quarterback the caliber of Cedric Case.
Standing a little over 6-foot-2 and weighing 205 pounds Case is pretty much your model high school quarterback, strong in the pocket, strong of arm, strong of will. A true team leader for a squad that looks a lot like its youth football predecessor...see, it’s mainly the same guys. And the plot thickens from there.
“My dad (Chad Case) became an assistant coach at Lincoln High my seventh-grade year and he was also our youth football coach. The guys on our team liked playing together so we decided to stay together and go to the same school,” remembers Cedric. “My dad told me I could go wherever I wanted but we all decided Lincoln High was a good choice because it was located right in the middle of the city. That and we wanted to make something happen, really leave our mark”
With that the migration began with last year’s seniors, led by the incomparable all-state receiver Zion Perry, and continuing with this year’s senior class that is headlined by Case, state track champion Darius Luff, speedy receivers Chris Jones Jr. and Morgan Perry III. In the time it took you to read that last sentence they scored another long touchdown; it happens that fast, and often.
Case emerged as the team’s quarterback in 2016 and helped the Links to a winning regular season, 5-4, and a playoff berth, the program’s first since 2004. Things were coming to a rapid boil and when Lincoln High won its first eight games of 2017 and rose to the top five in the Class A rankings people were seeing Links football in a whole different light.
“Our start last season was pretty amazing and it set a tone for what we expect from our team,” says Case. “Zion Perry helped set the tone for last year’s team and I want to do the same for this year’s team. I always try to do the right thing and lead by example, just like Zion did.”
Lincoln High lost its regular season finale and then lost a lead in its playoff game, falling to another rising team in Millard South. “Millard South deserved to win that game. We didn’t make the routine plays like we had all season and it cost us,” remembers Cedric. “I do know that game serves as motivation for our team. We can be so much better than that.”
For all of his quarterbacking greatness Case didn’t even play the position his first four years in organized football. He was planning to be a running back, the next Marshall Faulk, his NFL hero. Funny how plans change.
With him at running back, wearing Faulk’s No. 28, the team’s starting quarterback got hurt. Now what? Cedric got tossed into the position, “because I knew all the plays,” and the rest was history. He changed his number to a more quarterback-like No. 10, which also happens to be his mom’s favorite number. Back home we call that a win-win.
Born in Lincoln, Cedric has two younger sisters and he’s a bit of a homebody, who is a big believer in nap taking. “I get in trouble at home for that sometimes,” says the fully rested Cedric. He’s a real good student, carrying a 3.69 GPA, plays basketball and last spring trained in the spring with the team’s track sprinters. Good idea, Lincoln High is your defending Class A state track champion.
As for college, Cedric holds a number of Division II offers and over the summer attended some Division I camps like those at Colorado State, South Dakota State, Wyoming and North Dakota State. “I don’t have a clue where I will go but to me the most important thing is to get my college paid for, so I won’t be walking on anywhere,” says Cedric. “Wherever I do go I wanted to be able to leave a legacy by playing, not sitting for four years.”
He’s already built quite a legacy at Lincoln High - passing for 3,249 yards with a 35-to-4 TD to interception ratio as a junior will do that for you - but there is more to accomplish. Just ask him.
“There are a lot of people who are happy for our success but we haven’t reached our ultimate goal. That is what drives us, all of us.” And we both know what that means.
