JAY – Like his teammates, Justin Wells wears wristbands with a list of plays taped to them that Jay coach Mark Bonnevie will call during the course of the game. Bonnevie calls the cheat sheets “wrist coaches.”

When Bonnevie sends the play into the Jay offensive huddle, 10 arms go in the air simultaneously, while one stays down at its owner’s side.

“All of those guys are looking to see what play it is,” said Bonnevie. “Justin isn’t looking,”

Wells, a senior quarterback in his third year starting for Jay, could probably run the Tiger offense in his sleep.

As the most prolific passer in Western Class C, Wells has seen more defenses that are designed to stop him than any other quarterback in his league. Bonnevie and his staff have worked hard to help prepare him for that since his sophomore year, but they’ve also been fortunate to have a QB who can sometimes figure out what the opposition is trying to do before his wrist coaches or his real coaches do.

“We’ve seen some different defenses. We sure have,” Bonnevie said. “But we have a luxury in that Justin is extremely smart. He’ll come back to me on the sideline on that first series and tell me exactly what’s going on.”

He figured out enough defenses last year to complete 59 percent of his passes for 1,192 yards, 22 touchdowns and just four interceptions. The Tigers went 8-2, winning seven in a row before a loss to Boothbay knocked them out of the playoffs.

Jay lost much of its offensive line and Wells lost three of his top four receivers from that team, yet the Tigers are one of the favorites in the Campbell Conference this year, primarily due to Wells.

Quarterbacks usually get more than their fair share of the credit when their team wins and of the blame when it loses, but Wells knows he’s under even more scrutiny than that in a town that expects championships from its high school teams.

“I’m sure there’s a lot of pressure on me, but I just take it. I just go out and play football, really,” he said.

Wells is used to pressure, having played in several intense regional and state championship games for Jay’s basketball and baseball teams. With that background, he knew it was going to take a little extra work this summer to add football to his winning portfolio.

He worked on timing with his new receivers and put in more time lifting and running than he had in the past.

“He pretty much was allergic to the weight room for a while,” Bonnevie said. “He did a great job there this summer once he got done playing baseball, and it’s tough for him because he plays every sport to get in there as much as he’d really like. But just looking at him, you can see the difference.”

“I knew that’s what it was going to take to get us to the next level,” Wells said. “I put on at least 15 pounds and it’s made a difference in terms of my speed and strength running the ball and my arm strength, too.”

That arm will get a lot of work this fall, too, but Wells would just as soon see the Tigers show the kind of balance they did in last week’s 53-0 rout of Buckfield/Dirigo.

“I would love to come out and run the ball 60 times a game and throw it four times. That would take a lot of pressure off me,” he said.