There are certain things in the sporting world which are just plain reassuring.  That reassurance normally stems from things one can count on. From consistency and predictability often come strength and reassurance. 

For the last 14 football seasons, Jill Quiambao has manned the chains at Meredith Memorial Stadium. 

That stint began when Quiambao was approached by a fellow Kiwanis Club member, Jason Ray, who needed one person to round-out the chain team for the season. Quiambao, a 1992 Mineola graduate and a huge Yellowjacket fan, jumped at the chance. 

Her first season was spent manning the 10-yard marker. Before the 2012 season, she was again asked if she could be on the chain gang.

“I told them that I would on one condition, that I could man the down marker,” stated Quiambao. She explained that the down marker was in the middle of the action, at the line of scrimmage for each play, and was literally the best seat in the house. “So, for the past 13 seasons I have been on the down marker,” she said.

While it may be the best seat in the house, Quiambao explained that it is no place to relax.  Avoidance of players closing the sideline is a concern every play. Quiambao admitted that one develops a good sense for when it is time to “drop the sticks and run.” 

“I have only been bowled-over once in all those games,” she noted, when the players were crowded around her and left no space for her to avoid the action. Players from both teams hurried to her and helped her up.

“The Mineola boys were calling to me ‘Miss Jill… Miss Jill’ as they helped me up.” 

In 2016, the Mineola Education Foundation was founded and the group took over the duties of the chain gang. Quiambao became a recognizable feature on the visitors’ sideline at Meredith Memorial and during playoff runs of the Yellowjackets as well.   

In fact, during the Jackets state championship season, the state final was the only playoff game in which she did not have an active hand. Her service, however, did rate a sideline pass despite the chain gang duties being fulfilled by Cowboy Stadium staff.  

“I love the excitement and seeing the whole range of emotions from the players – the celebrations and the sorrows,” she advised. The 2016 state championship team presented her with a football signed by the whole team.

The chain gang duties have also developed in her quite a keen eye when it came to the rules of the game. Although chain gangs have a strict sense of evenhandedness while on duty (no cheering for one’s side), Quiambao has built a professional relationship with the officiating crews. 

“The linesman and I will chat throughout the game,” she recalled. The exchanges are always about the play-by-play placement of the ball as well as motion and off-sides calls. 

“When I first started, I used to hear people noting out loud that ‘there is a woman on the down marker,’ but now it is no big deal,” she stated.     

As high school football became a big part of her fall routine, she also took note of team tendencies and play-calling. She admitted that most high school teams run fairly predictable offenses, and that her favorite plays are when those tendencies are broken with flea-flickers and trick plays. 

What she takes most pride in, she said, was the well-balanced nature of the kids in Mineola athletics.

Quiambao remarked, “We just have some really great kids in Mineola, they play with heart and emotion.”

Some people may think that having a school board member manning the down marker on Friday nights might be a little odd, but it’s just Mineola.