Floyd's Ja'Quan Thomas wins Newsday's Hansen Award

Senior Ja’Quan Thomas is one of the greats in Floyd football history.
He destroyed the Suffolk Division I competition as a junior in 2024 with 2,594 yards rushing and 37 TD as the Colonials won the Suffolk Division I crown. The New York Jets named Thomas the Tri-State Player of the Year in 2024 when he had all five TDs in a 34-6 win over Ward Melville in the Suffolk final.
The encore to his first full season would be even better when one considers that every defensive coordinator schemed to stop Thomas and the Floyd running attack.
With no threat of a potent passing game, Thomas still managed to romp for another 2,079 yards rushing and 31 TD leading the Colonials back to the Division I championship game.
The fitting conclusion to an incredible career came in this year’s title game against Ward Melville where Thomas stepped in at quarterback – having never played the position before – and the offense didn’t miss a beat. Thomas performed out of the shotgun formation like he’d played the position his entire life.
Thomas was just a special kind of athlete. He was pure talent.
How about this little-known tidbit? Thomas scored in every varsity game he played in at Floyd. All 27 of them.
For his accomplishments, Thomas was voted the 66th recipient of Newsday’s Carl A. Hansen Award as Suffolk’s most outstanding player at the Suffolk County Football Coaches Association dinner at the Hyatt Regency in Hauppauge. He’s also a two-time winner of the Joe Cipp Award, presented to Suffolk’s most outstanding running back.
Thomas, at 6-1, 225 pounds, became the third player in Floyd’s history to garner the prestigious Hansen Award. Brock Jackolski (2007) and Stacey Bedell (2011) also won the award.
“The big guy can knock you down and run you over,” Floyd coach Paul Longo said. “He has great vision and tremendous balance. He can run away from people, but likes to go through them. He would be gang tackled and pop out of a pile and run for a long TD. We’d be amazed – ‘how did he do that?’.”
Longo said Thomas was different from Floyd’s other great runners.
“Stacey Bedell and Brock Jackolski were pure burners,” Longo said. “They would outrun everyone. They were phenomenal runners and impossible to tackle in the open field.”
Thomas gave the Floyd faithful a sign of things to come when he averaged more than 10 yards per carry over a four-game span in his sophomore season.
In his junior and senior years, Thomas never rushed for less than 122 yards in a game. He set the school record for career points with 438, surpassing Bedell’s 436. He tied the school record of 72 total touchdowns set by Bedell from 2009-2011. The difference, Bedell achieved it in 36 games and Thomas needed only 27.
“He was like an escape artist,” Longwood coach Sean Kluber said. “We had stopped him on a few plays, and he would keep his legs moving and come out of the pack. He was relentless.”
When Thomas was in middle school, opposing coaches complained that he should be moved to the junior varsity level.
Thomas was dominating as a seventh grader on the JV 9 team but moved back to the middle school team in eighth grade to play with his friends.
“Varsity coaches asked me why we had Derrick Henry playing on the eighth-grade team in reference to a then 13-year-old phenom named Ja’Quan Thomas,” Longo laughed. “They were comparing this young kid to the Baltimore Ravens star halfback Derrick Henry. No one could tackle him at that level.”
Longo laughed at his own admission.
“Geez, they could hardly tackle him at the varsity level,” he said. “I knew he was special when he scored against Sachem North in the Suffolk championship game as a sophomore.”
Thomas was so athletic that the coaching staff held back some of the things he could do - like throw a football.
They never allowed him to throw an option pass, keeping that top secret until the Suffolk title game. In a brilliant coaching decision, Longo, the winningest public schools coach in Suffolk history, who turned a mediocre program into a powerhouse, moved Thomas to quarterback in the Wildcat formation.
Longo, who’s led Floyd to 21 Suffolk championship games in his 31 years, and a Suffolk-record 15 titles, knew the offensive wrinkle would fluster the Ward Melville defense.
“Ja’Quan was amazing,” Longo said. “We were one play away from another title.”
Thomas completed six of seven passes for 143 yards and one touchdown. He also ran for 184 yards and scored three TDs trying to lift the Colonials to another title. They came up short in a 31-28 loss to Ward Melville.
“I’d trade every yard for a championship,” Thomas said afterward. “But I’m proud of my team. We battled every play.”
Thomas finished his career with 4,986 yards rushing.
Quite the career.
 Andy Slawson contributed to this story
 

By Gregg Sarra

gregg.sarra@newsday.com@Gregg_Sarra

Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.