VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (WTKR)- Earlier this year, Green Run head football coach Brandon Williams arrived at work to a pleasant surprise.
"I was walking into the building one day," Williams recalled. "They said 'Coach, we have someone who just got here from Phoebus and it was Maurikus Banks. I said 'hey, the football gods must be shining down on me.'"
"Of course it was a change of programs, but I feel like it's a similar culture, winning, everybody wants to win, everybody's on the same page, same goals," added Banks.
Banks is no stranger to winning. He helped Phoebus to two state titles during his three seasons with the Phantoms. Now he'll spend his senior year in the Beach, looking to be a difference-maker for an already-strong Green Run squad. The Stallions have not lost to a district opponent in the last five campaigns, but are still searching for their first state crown.
"This team reminds me of the team I had my freshman year," Banks recalled. "We've got all the pieces around us to win a state championship. We've just got to bring it all together and once we bring it all together we should be unstoppable."
Pressure is nothing new for the senior quarterback and he's answered it nearly every time. It started during his freshman season, when he took over the starting job in the playoffs after the senior starter went down with an injury. He's been rising to the occasion ever since and now brings valuable reps to a program battling for a championship banner.
"Being prepared for those hostile moments, some hostile environments, being back against the wall when it's just you and your team and the guy you've got to trust is the man next to you," Banks said of what he brings to Green Run.
"He's done it at the highest level," Williams said. "He's done it since his freshman year so hopefully that confidence and the camaraderie and the leadership ability that he has will rub off on the other guys."
Plenty of Banks's new teammates know the sting of falling just short. Green Run has advanced to the state semifinals in three of the last five years, falling to Maury in each of the three match-ups. Williams says this year will see his team make their championship march one week at a time.
"Of course everybody at this point in the year has state championship aspirations," he noted. "We've still got a season to play, we've got games to play and we can't put that type of pressure on high school kids, but our goal is to go 1-0 each and every week."
"We're ready for the season to start," Banks added. "We've got big hopes for the season, we've got big goals and the biggest one is, of course, to win the state championship."
Green Run kicks off its 2026 campaign at home against Tallwood on August 28.
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