20/20 vision: Justice QB Hobbs passing on the gridiron; and on life's tougher tests

Oct. 5—LAFAYETTE — Justice High School senior Clayton Hobbs goes under his helmet to adjust his thick, black-rimmed glasses after taking a hit on the football field. The coach asks his 5-foot-7 quarterback why he doesn't just wear prescription goggles, and he tells him it's because they give him motion sickness.

Hobbs isn't your prototypical signal-caller, leading a program far from ordinary in its own right — one filled with at-risk youth and other students who have struggled with the traditional school system.

He also happens to be the state's leading passer in 8-man football.

"Clayton is a really hard worker, a great kid," Justice coach Nels Thoreson says of Hobbs, who is averaging more than 260 passing yards and three touchdowns for the 1-4 Phoenix, who host 8-man No. 3 Lyons 1 p.m. Saturday at Recht Field.

Both agree it's a testament to Hobbs' parents.

His mom works at the local Walmart in Lafayette. His father is a mechanic who fixes and oils bowling machines. They're gone from the house most of the time, working sunup to sundown.

"They're very hard workers," Hobbs says. "Both of my parents work every day and that motivates me to work harder than the people around me."

He knows he's in a better situation than most at Justice because of it.

It's not to say there aren't challenges in the Hobbs household. There are, including the obvious financial ones. But when talking to the QB, it's a home met with plenty of love, which is far different than some of his classmates, struggling with addicts for parents and unstable living conditions.

There's clearly been guidance, too. Like father, like son, many of the QB's best throws have actually been reserved for the bowling lanes.

Get this: The high schooler says he's already thrown seven perfect-300 games. Seven.

He says learning how to ignore outside distractions bowling is the same focus he has on the gridiron and tries to have in life.

"Just keeping people out of your head and not thinking about expectations," Hobbs describes his tunnel vision. "Just thinking about what you need to do in order to reach a goal."

Hobbs, who'd struggled to find his place in school and football before leaving Centaurus midway through his sophomore year, is now in his second year at quarterback for Justice.

His coach says he is a leader on a team with players who've been incarcerated and others who have no reliable caretakers.

After practice on occasion, he'll take his commitment to football and the team further by going up to Longmont, near where a couple of his receivers live, to throw it around a little more.

"We have fun, bond. We then go eat wings together," says the Phoenix's leading receiver, Jerimiah Ageous.

Like Hobbs, Ageous says he is striving to make the most out of his time at Justice. A couple years ago, he came here struggling, too.

But now, Hobbs and Ageous are counted on. To work hard. To produce. And to be strong teammates for some of the greener players.

"We had one kid at the start of practice this season who came out and his shoulder pads were on backwards," Thoreson chuckles. "So, sometimes we start from there."

At Justice, you never quite know what you'll get on a particular day.

At practice, they make do with a patch of grass behind the school that Thoreson and his brothers helped renovate a few years ago. It's not the length or width of a football field, but it's manicured and has lines going across it. And for certain, it's better than when they used to practice at LaMont Does Park, relegated off to a side field with uneven footing.

Adapting is always key at the school.

Thoreson, who also serves as the school's athletic director and English teacher, among other duties, sometimes finds out one of his players aren't at practice or a game because they've been arrested. He knows some parole officers pretty well after 14 years at the school.

On Wednesday, his starting defensive end just walked out of practice and he went to track him down after practice.

These are only a couple of examples of how the relationships at Justice expand further than coach-to-player, student-to-teacher.

As Thoreson sees it, Justice High School is like a "big family in a small house."

Some of his former students and players have gone on to succeed in life. Got good jobs. Became loving parents. Recently, his former quarterback, 2017 grad Julio Marquez, called him, beaming that he was going to be a father.

Some don't make it, though. They remain stuck in the same troubling cycle they were dealt as youths.

"We've all been through a lot of things," Hobbs says. "Justice has given us a second chance to do what we need to do."

Passing the football and some of life's tougher tests, Hobbs wants to make the most of it.